Day 12

Current Location: Mid Atlantic
Blogger: John

So, only a couple of hundred miles to halfway. Yesterday, after two days of unsuccessful connection effort to our link with the outside world I finally found a good frequency via the Lunenberg SSB Sailmail station. Hence this 'extra' blog whilst we have better connectivity.

How has it been so far? The thing that has surprised me most is the conditions. In nearly two weeks we have seen perhaps 20 hours of sunshine. Most of the time it is grey. It's not warm either maybe because we have only come south to 22 degrees to make a good entrance for St Maarten, one of the more northerly Caribbean islands. 23 C degrees is typical as our maximum daily temperature. We are all still in full oilies on watch. For me it is warm underpants, Gill's tights, someone's thermal bottoms, a thinsulate upper body layer, two jumpers, a hat and a buff. Top that off with a good quality sailing suit, wellies and a lifejacket/harness. It takes about 5 minutes to get into this little lot.

I also expected at least some days of relative calm. Despite the fact that we left late to ensure more consistent winds I envisaged some days when we wouldn't be struggling to stand upright. Instead we are covered in bruises on bruises and two nights ago while fighting with the steering Gilly broke a rib on her left side. Very unpleasant but, you know Gilly, on she goes!! Marcus is on watch at present and Gill and I have just spent ten minutes providing him with a bowl of cereal. Everything flies around as soon as you turn your back on it. But these are the winds that P loves. She can look after us in the strongest winds and then when the time is right she kicks up her heels and off we go. Absolutely magnificent.

Nevertheless spirits are high on the good ship Petronella. Gilly's birthday surprises are an integral part of the day around 6pm and we are trying to do choir practice each evening too. Marcus and Jenny make great crew and we have all the usual little 'in' phrases of the boat. For example poor Marcus has only managed two "emotional ocean motions" so far. With no door on the heads success or failure is quickly known and acknowledged by all on board. Spare time? There is none. Minor jobs fill what is left of the day once you have kept your watches and slept. So, sorry Em for not replying to your excellent quiz questions (we do them avidly though) or for not yet starting the Gleastonites Sailors Tales.

Now that our great friends on Carpe Diem have arrived in Martinique they have joined Russell-ish and Vera in providing us with invaluable weather information. They estimate our position over the next few days and build up a day by day picture for us of what we are likely to encounter. Other than diverting this way or that a hundred miles or so though there is not much we can actually do other than prepare ourselves (for more 3-4m waves and 25-30k winds - ah, there's a surprise)!

Tomorrow or the next day we should reach halfway and the number of miles to go will become less than that completed. Then it will be less than a thousand to go, and then…..[mustn't get ahead of myself].

As we move westwards (wow, that's a big wave just come crashing into the cockpit - Marcus is wet AGAIN) it gets dark a bit later each night so that eventually we have to put our clocks back into another time zone. We are now on UTC -2 with another two changes still to come. We will end up at longitude 063 W, still 30 degrees more to go but it really feels as though we are getting somewhere now when we plot our daily position on the chart. Em has booked her flights to the British Virgin Islands and our crew are starting to think about flights to S America where they will start their new lives. The end of the start has arrived, we are in the middle and just starting to wonder about the start of the end of the current adventure.

PS - An hour after I wrote this the sun came out, the wind dropped to 20-25, we shook out a reef and everything in the world was fabulous.

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