Wednesday 27th December

At Sea

Again we were up early as the weather forecast for the area is at 06.30hrs. Chris Parker, the weather Guru, was giving us a fair day today with a front to follow early the next day and winds clocking around to the North – just where we didn’t want them to be coming from. Having heard the forecast we agreed to set out and keep going to try and stay ahead of the front and make it as far as the Turks & Caicos Islands if possible. As we set out the winds were very light and the sea was calm. We managed to sail (main and jib) for a while then the winds got lighter so we had to motor sail and eventually the sea became like glass – not a ripple in sight as the wind dropped to nothing. The sails went away and we had to motor for a bit, as we had nothing better to do we threw out THE fishing line and christened it, we trolled with it behind us for a total of 7 hours and didn’t get a single thing – Lyn & Peter, I though you said it was foolproof! I had the filleting knife and the fry pan all ready for the fresh fish dinner so it was a great disappointment to have to eat the sandwiches I’d made “just in case”. We made it to Mayaguana (one of our options) before sunset and decided to keep going through the night to try to beat the front. During the night the wind came up enough for us to be able motor sail again with just the jib. We took it in turn keeping watch and cat napping in the cockpit – we like the company! The auto pilot did most of the steering – he needs a pay rise.