Day 1 SXM to Gib
Noon Position 19 deg 52N 59deg 51W
Course – 060 Degrees Speed – 10.5 Knots Day’s Run – 225 Miles
Weather – Sunny and warm with 3-6’ (1-2m) swells from S
Wind – 8 knots from 180 degrees
Timoneers Caribbean season is over. We left Antigua Easter Sunday and sailed overnight to Sint Maarten to fix a few problems we had not managed to fix in Antigua. Sint Maarten is also a good place to provision the yacht for the crossing. We now have the tracking working again on the website if you want to keep track of where we are.
After a busy morning of fire, medical, man overboard and abandon ship drills we did the final stowing to be ready for sea. We hauled the anchor at 2pm, hoisted the sails and motored sailed away from St Maarten with uncharacteristically light winds. The seas have been fairly comfortable and we have had just enough wind to keep the sails full, stopping us from rolling.
We have headed out in to an unusual weather system which is going to guarantee light winds for at least the first half of the trip. We have decided to stay away from the storms to the north and stay much further south than the traditional route, keeping us in light winds from the south instead.
The fishing lines are out but no luck yet.
We have just over 3000 nautical miles to go to Gibraltar
JC