We have been at sea now for eight days and have covered 1400 miles and according to our Raymarine chart plotter we have 1450 miles to go to St Lucia. By tomorrow morning we will be half way!!
Although we haven’t been getting very much wind, usually no more than 10 to 12 knots, we have still done exceptionally well. Today the position report put us 14th overall – not bad considering there are 230 boats taking part and some of those are quite big racing boats. We are also the lead boat in the multihull division; although we shouldn’t get too cocky as there is still a long way to go and ultimately it will all come down to the weather each boat gets and the number of engine hours each boat uses. We record our engine hours and there is a penalty at the end of the race depending on how many hours of motoring we do. So far we have only used 11hours so I think we’re doing pretty well.
All the boats are now spread out over several hundred miles and we haven’t seen another yacht for over 2 days and we only saw our first large cargo boat for the first time today. Even the marine life has been thin on the ground – a couple of whales, a few dolphins and a bird (unknown type) who tried to land on the boat for a rest.
Since we have been sailing all the time there has been little opportunity to fish, much to the disappointment of Emily. We did put the lines in a couple of days ago when there was no wind and we had to motor for a couple of hours. It only took 10 minutes before we had hook ups on both lines and now we have enough fish (Mahi Mahi) to stock the freezer. Also a great feed of Thai fish cakes.
