Sunday, December 9, 2012

st.lucia, here we come! DAY 10 to 13 - becalmed

after the first mahi mahi, Michael caught the next one - this time a 85cm and app.4,5kg fish - almost too pretty to be eaten, but it was very very tasty!

we had a great sail up until the night before last night. after a big rain shower the wind disappeared completely. also the swell died down a bit.
so far we tried every possible sail-setup to keep the boat moving with only 8-10kn of wind. but the rather big waves (for this light wind) cause the sails to flap heavily, because the wind just can't keep them full.
rather exhausted and frustrated we have decided to give our trustworthy volvo a go as the rolling over the waves is easier to handle when the boat is moving.
unfortunately this will mean quite a penalty for the rally across the atlantic, but as we saw the other day, also a lot of other yachts made the same decision.

it is quite an amazing sight though being in the middle of the atlantic with wonderful cloud-structures around you and a rather calm sea (I will try to post some pictures when we are in st.lucia)
however, after a couple of days we are all waiting for the wind to return which should happen some time today (sunday) according to the grib-file of our weather program.

on my night watch tonight I got almost hit by a flying fish jumping onto maloo. he only missed me by a couple of centimeters before slamming into the bimini and landing on deck. lucky I could quickly return him to the water.

at the moment we only have 889nm left till rodney bay and with the temperatures rising to 30°C (water is 26.1°C) we can feel getting closer to the caribbean.

If the wind returns we hope to arrive on the 14th/15th of december!

as promised here also our menu update: it has been fresh mahi-mahi (dolphin fish/dorade...however you want to call it) with tomato-onion sauce and couscous, chinese stir fry with gingered beef and lamb chops with tuscan string beans and gnocchi.
so - still no signs of starvation on maloo!

2 comments:

  1. We are happy to hear that you all are well! This sounds like a very nice gourmet-trip! Have a beautiful strong wind carrying you to St.Lucia!
    Pit & Astrid

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello maloo, obviously you've changed to a swimming 3-Star-Restaurant.
    Really amazing to follow the food descriptions which take place on board.:-))
    Mark, I forgot your birthday,- sorry for that. Hope you had the same big party that I had some days ago.
    Wish you the necessary wind for the final distance and we are glad to hear that everything is going well so far.
    Helmut

    ReplyDelete