Day 16

Distance run in last 24 hours: 192 nautical miles

Distance to destination:  319 nautical miles

Apparently the Atlantic has decided to bare its teeth one last time.  Last night was very rough - the roughest since we have been on passage.  The wind grew stronger with gusts over 30 knots, and the sea has been wild and unpredictable.  Staying on course was tricky throughout the night watches, not helped by occasional fierce rain squalls blowing through.  As we were being thrown around down below, even in our bunks, no-one had much sleep last night, least of all the poor skipper who was more or less permanently on call dealing with sail adjustments. Morale is good but the crew are all a bit tired and battered.
Morning dawned grey with an impressive sea running.  Winds have remained astern at force six, gusting to force seven at times.  Alcedo has been running fast before the swell, surging forward and maintaining speeds close to 10 knots.  I would not describe the seas as mountainous, but the waves are certainly big - at times towering over the yacht.  The sun came out in mid morning, and we are now running under a bright blue sky over an angry sea, surrounded by breaking crests and with white foam streaked over the surface of the waves.  As Venetia remarked, 'the wind is perfect, the problem is the sea'.  All those on the helm have managed inadvertently to dip the end of the boom in the water from time to time, as larger waves have rolled the boat beyond our control.  Alcedo has proved very forgiving and sea-kindly, and she has looked after us all impeccably.  It has been an exciting day, something of a 'white knuckle ride' in truth, but under these conditions we are closing fast upon the Windward Islands.  It seems unlikely now that we will manage the '200 mile day' that we had hoped for, but we are all enjoying this roller-coaster finish to the ARC.

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Day 15

Distance run in last 24 hours: 182 nautical miles

Distance to destination: 507 nautical miles

A blissful day at sea.  Believe it or not, we have at long last found the trade winds (more accurately, the trade winds have found us), and all cynicism and scepticism over their existence can now cease.  We have a 15-20 knot tail wind, a practically cloudless sky and Alcedo is romping along at a consistent 8-10 knots - conditions are idyllic.  It is measure of the vastness of the Atlantic that although around 300 yachts are plying similar routes to the Caribbean (and there must also be commercial vessels out here), we have not seen another soul - not a light on the night-time horizon nor an electronic contact on our screens - for the last five days.  So it was a surprise to find a contact blinking on the chartplotter at breakfast time today, although through binoculars this turned out not to be a yacht but a 'floating gin palace' motoring swiftly beyond us.  However, this afternoon we do indeed have a sail on the horizon, and we think that we are now increasingly likely to see other yachts as our various routes begin to converge on St Lucia.  If present conditions persist, we may make landfall late on Thursday or on Friday morning, and we are all keen now to get to Rodney Bay before the bulk of the cruising fleet arrive. We still seem to be in a good position - in Sally's words 'we are behind a few boats that we should be ahead of, but ahead of several we ought to be behind'. 

I spent 20 minutes before watch this morning again trying, and failing, to catch flying fish on camera.  I was then given a lesson in catching flying fish by a pelagic sea bird (a brown booby, the experts tell me) that seemed to use Alcedo as cover for successfully and repeatedly diving on unsuspecting fish - this bird followed our yacht for most of my morning watch and provided excellent entertainment.

 

A comment on distances.  Critical observers of this blog's regular statistics will have noted that the daily distances run by Alcedo are not identical to reduced mileage to our final destination in St Lucia.  It may be worth explaining the several reasons for this.  Firstly, the distance run each day is given by the ship's log (which records progress through the water), and inevitably wind direction and other factors (like human error in steering straight) mean that a yacht does not always proceed directly towards her chosen destination (although we have been very fortunate in this respect during the ARC). In such a case the distance run will inevitably be greater than the reduction in 'miles to go'. Secondly, unlike travel by road, the boat is travelling over water which is itself moving over the face of the earth. This is why boats returning to Europe generally take a more northerly route, where they can take advantage of the Gulf Stream, which can add 3 knots or more to boat speed.  While crossing the Atlantic, we have gained some slight advantage from the North Equatorial Current which flows westwards at around one knot.  In other words, if we were becalmed, the ocean current would itself move us in the general direction of St Lucia by about 20 miles each day.  So the distance travelled by Alcedo towards her destination may be greater than the log distance shown. (I hope this makes some sense...).  Finally, my erratic steering, particularly in the light airs experienced for most of the past week, means that not all our progress has been in the ideal direction, sadly....