I am glad we waited for a better day as we had a cracking sail up from St Vincent with a reefed main and just the staysail for most of the time.
Even so we saw 6 knots and when I unrolled a smidge of the headsail we were seeing 7s. We held the course needed easily and it was not untill we hit the wind shadow from the Pitons at the South end of St Lucia that I needed the engine.
Elephants Child received a pretty complement from a fellow cruiser and 5 times circumnavigator aboard a 45 foot fast cruiser called Nero. He asked what kind of boat it was and how come we left after him and got into Marigot Bay an hour before him.
I told him we were cheating and had our swing keel down drawing 10 feet, to this he retorted well I draw 8 feet and I got a lot of lead down there but we still could not keep up.
I see the racing instinct is still alive and well. Yes cruising but doing it efficiently.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have had a great year,
Snow and freezing weather here, a shock to my system as I have just returned from Indonesia and Borneo. Nilo is still there and the girls go out on Sunday for 2 weeks. Just me and the dog, and he, like me, wants some warmer weather.