Having set the ship’s clock back yesterday as well and moved our watches forward by an hour too, sunrise was at a more appropriate time this morning of 0710, with daylight starting to break just after 0615.
By 1300 we’d passed the 2/3-way mark and we had less than 878NM to go.
Our day took on the usual routine; Elaine and Justine went off watch after breakfast. Before Elaine headed to bed for the morning, though, leaving Roy and Paul on watch, the decision was taken to stay on the headsail alone and all unused sheets were stowed, including the preventer, following which the saloon windows were washed, the latter thanks to Paul and the former required due to the deteriorating weather conditions expected from later today through to Wednesday as a result of a tropical wave that had formed to the south of us, plus a strengthening ridge to the north of us. Thankful for the stronger winds, we, however, had to reef the headsail a tad to accommodate the sea state and prevent Paw Paw from surfing down waves or, indeed, skidding down sideways.
Elaine surfaced around noon and assumed her afternoon watch, which included removing the bread from the oven at the appropriate time which Roy had started to bake on his watch and making chocolate chip muffins, the latter to celebrate reaching the 2/3-way mark, while Justine assumed her position in the sun after Roy and Paul went for their afternoon naps.
By 1500 we still had S/Y Wilma to our starboard side, appearing yesterday again after crisscrossing our bow a few days ago. While we’ve seen a few other yachts pop up on the AIS (Automatic Identification System) we haven’t visually seen them.
News from ARC Rally Control this morning informed us that the first of the racing yachts had arrived in St Lucia, while the centre of the fleet were well over halfway across the Atlantic Ocean.
Afternoon tea / coffee and muffins marked our milestone before Captain’s music hour recommenced after a few days of being absent, for no other reason than Roy had simply forgotten. It was inevitable that sooner or later the music hour would turn into a dance session, occurring this evening when Roy started to play Mango Groove, a band Elaine and Justine both love.
To a beautiful sunset, Justine danced around the cockpit keeping a firm grip on the handrail to the helmstation for safety and Elaine bobbed in her seat, while the boys looked on with their usual look of dismay.
By then it was bedtime for the girls leaving the boys on watch. With the deteriorating conditions, as expected, Roy reefed the headsail to steady Paw Paw and slow here down somewhat, a configuration Elaine kept for the first hour of the watch, but reefed a little more and bared away a degree or two to keep the apparent wind at an acceptable level . A tad disconcerting was having S/Y Wilma in relatively close proximity considering the weather conditions, causing us to keep a watchful eye on their progress too.
On other news, our orchid, Daphne, as she has been christened by Justine, is budding beautifully and we’re expecting to be parents again by the time we reach St Lucia.
By end of day, we had 810NM to go, not that we’re counting or anything!
