Our ETA  in Rodney Bay, StLucia is the night between Wedensday and Thursday. We are making steady 130 nM a day now. The winds are still more than plenty. The always interfering waves and swell grow up to 5 m sometimes, but the normal is 3,5 – 4 m. Rolling, rolling, rolling. Anybody who guesses that we look forward to the flat water in Rodney Bay? The squalls keep us allert. We check them on the radar (we see the rain) when they are approacing, so we shall know whether they hit us or not. But we don’t see aforehand how strong they are. One boat reported 56 kn this morning. We were lucky, we had no more than 37. But for a long time last night we had about 30 kn. We talked to a French boat on the vhf this morning, and they had been lucky, the had been on the other side of the squall.

We arrive StLucia before the finishing line closes. Two days before. And tomorrow is the last time we connect to others on the SSB net. No more 4.149 kHz, or 4 Charlie as it is called, for this time. It has been nice to have his contact once aday, and the good contact proves that our new HF antenna is much better than the old one, because in 2008 we were not able to follow the net in a way like this.

Yesterday was 4th Sunday in “advent” (I don’t know if there is any English word for it.) We sat down in the cockpit with a glass of white wine and thought of you back home. It is a strange feeling living under so different conditions. (In the saloon at the moment it is 29 C, outside the sun shines from a position as high as in Oslo midsummer, and the seas are more than 3 m high, rocking us around.) But we have the same moon at night as you. It is very bright now that it is full, and even if there are couds from time to time, it gives light to see the sea around us. Polaris is very low, less than 15 degrees above the horizon. In Oslo you see it 60 degrees up. But it points to the north wherever you are on the northern hemisphere. “Karlsvogna” (I cannot recall the English name.) does not come over the horizon till late at night, and then it is upside down. We shall adapt to the life in the tropics, no doubt, but Christmas back home will be something we shall miss very much.