The Home Run
Worthy Sailing Mojo
Paul Worthington
Tue 5 Dec 2023 12:31
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14.28.60N: 49.51.35W
The weather forecast predicted "freshening" winds, a
sailor's way of saying getting "stronger" and we have not been disappointed
overnight and this morning we have seen gusts of up to 30 knots but generally
about 20 knots. Whilst the wind is not the real issue as we have reduced sail,
it creates an unpleasant following sea which on occasion picks up the stern of
the boat and pushes it round causing a cork screw motion so much so that Colin
has resorted to sea sickness pills this morning and taken to his bed for a lie
down, hopefully to be fit and ready for his watch later. None of us got much
sleep last night with the boat bucking from side to side in 4 metre
swells so everyone is pretty tired.
The silver lining is that we are making good headway and
our instruments show just 640 miles left to go, in the last 24 hours we covered
163 miles so we are now able to make some reasonable forecasts about potential
arrival times in Rodney Bay. If we maintain our current speed then I reckon that
we should arrive sometime circa lunch time on Saturday which would be great as
landfall would be in daylight which will make things much easier.
Other than that not much to report, Michel cooked a fab
meal last night which given the rolling motion of the boat was amazing, salmon
with lentils and spinach followed by peach rice pudding, meal times are getting
more problematical as we travel west and inevitably we are starting to push back
mealtimes so we are not too out of synch when we arrive.
The mood today I sense is one of the crew just wanting
to get to the destination now and I'm sure the last few days will go
quickly. I have vacated the fore cabin in preference to the lea cloth
in the main saloon as sleep pretty much impossible up front without ending up in
a heap on the floor.
Forecast is for winds to stay like this still tomorrow
and then lighten allowing us to drift in with lighter winds with the trade wind
sail, most of the more intense squalls are said to be well south
but are possible as far North as our location so hopefully we will
miss the worst of these.
Signing off till tomorrow
Paul/Skip
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