Day 29

So...... could it be the last full day today? It's going to be tight!

Just under 80 miles left to go after a roller coaster of a ride for the last 24-hours. All night we flew along at 6 knots, 6.5, 7.5, (reef), 6.5, 7, 8.2 (reef again)... and we've made good time today as well, however we've got further and further off course as the wind's come round with nothing we can do. The velocity made good has slowly dropped and then so has the wind. The others have been changing sails in the rain for an hour and we now have just a poled out genoa and the engine is on.

We've put the hour back and are now on Caribbean Time! Mum desperately wants to be there tomorrow and I think we're all starting to feel the same, if for nothing else than it will make her happy (and keep her sane)!

A real wildlife day today with two sets of dolphins (Bottlenose we think this time) and a return for both the Frigate Bird and the gannety-thing (which is definitely a juvenile gannet, Rose and Brian, Marcus and I saw it do the bent wing plummet several times). We must be nearing land. Oh, wait, we are! How exciting. We now have about 20 photos of empty sky as the boat rocked the bird out of view to go with our 20 photos of empty sea where we missed the dolphins/whales.

We had our very first victim to Davy Jones' Locker today. Marcus couldn't hold on to the sink strainer when tapping the gunk off it as his hands were soaking and cold and it plummeted to the depths. Not too bad for 30 days at sea (though the fleece headband has had two near misses).

Thanks to everyone for Marcus' birthday wishes on the blog and Loz for his football pun-inspired text which was Gareth SouthGreat!

Mum had her last birthday messages from Jenny Gray and Wombat (potentially a bold move), along with a new top and some champagne. There were tears before bedtime, but good tears! She says she has really enjoyed all of the messages and letters, and they really have been very, very appreciated!

Right, better go and get ready for my 8-10pm watch. This time tomorrow we might be there!! Squark.

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