Nearly there!

Nick writes

Subject to catastrophe we are now starting our last full day at sea . We have about 140 miles to go with already 2021 having passed beneath the keel. Last night was again a great sail with hourly average speeds ranging from 6.9 to 7.3knts and a real roller coaster as we sped into the night. Ian and I have been hand steering through the night, every night to save on the battery power that would been used by the Autohelm. It has been great fun although towards the end of a 4 hour watch the course gets a bit erratic!

Yesterday we were slowly overhauled by Mamosa a Norwegean yacht from the rally and just before sun down were close enough to get some great photos of them being thrown around by a confused sea. They were running with full genoa and stay sail poled out and no main compared to our double reefed main and part rolled and poled genoa. The sea has a NE swell running with an E’ly wave pattern on top. It has made the last few days difficult to move about the boat and impossible to stay still. The photos show this really well.

Having overtaken us we think Mamosa reduced sail for the night and subsequently slowed down so that we were within a mile of each other over night. Not ideal but now daylight has arrived they are again pulling away.

This is likely to be my last blog so I was thinking over night what to write and came up with this drivel.

My greatest concern about making this trip was that we would not be friends by the end of it. We have known Ian and Caroline for about 23 years and Charlotte for not much less and have always got on well but have never spent more than a few days in close company and for us to now spend best part of 2 months together seemed to court disaster. They are of course very laid back but we are much more buttoned up. At one of the briefings Chris Tibbs told a tale of a crew falling out over the eating of cheese and the importance of nipping problems in the bud. So we bought lots of cheese and agreed to talk through frustrations as they arose. So far I,C & C have not raised anything with us but I have got precious about a few things and aired these along the way (sorry guys). Overall my initial concerns have been unfounded, we have had a great time and unless they have stored something up for when we arrive in St Lucia I think that we will be heading home to turn the central heating up the best of friends. Now where is that cheese…………

Talking of food,we have had great food throughout, although it turns out Ian doesn’t like my cooking! So thank you to all of the cooks and the procurement officers.

The boat has performed very well and despite the amount of stuff on board has shown itself to be a slippery thing through the water. Perhaps the French do know how to build a boat after all. Remember though, many a slip between cup and lip.

Having a water maker with a 150 litres per hour capacity has been a real boon. Ian has kept the tanks topped up so that we have been able to do clothes washing and have showers on a regular basis. The less than stable conditions of the last few days has however meant that showering is not practical. Its hard enough to stand up without trying to do it covered in soap! This means using a flannel and having a strip wash. I believe some people call them face clothes but as they are used to wash more than your face it doesn’t seem appropriate. Just remember to start at the top and work your way down. The next day you need to forget where you finished the day before and start at the top again!

So to finish the sailing’s been great, the boats been great, the foods been great (come on Ian surprise us and cook a meal) and the company has been great. Thanks Guys.