Day 1 SXM to Newport
Noon Position 18 deg 50N 63 deg 27 W
Course -340 Degrees Speed -10 Knots Day’s Run – 56 Miles
Weather – Sunny skies with 1-2m swell from the NE
Wind -9 knots from 140 degrees
We had a slow trip from Antigua Sint Maarten after developing a vibration from the propeller just after dark. After fearing the worst we put up all the sails and sailed at 7-8 knots the 2nd half of the trip. In the morning on anchor the engineers dived on the prop and found that the rope cutter mounting had moved and the cutter was free to spin on the shaft and cause vibration. After about an hour of diving and adjusting it and checking the shaft bearings were fine we went for a sea trial and much to our relief all was good again. Meanwhile Jordi and Penny went to the shops to top up the fridges with foods we could not get in Antigua.
We dropped Jonny ashore at 6am and headed to sea on a very still morning. Passing Anguilla, our Antigua wi-fi router burst into life so we slowed down to take advantage of the internet to get a weather forecast and check our emails. From now on all our communications with the outside world will be by very low bandwidth (SLOW) Iridium satellite phone.
The total distance for the trip from SXM to Newport is 1500nm. All going well we should be getting in to Newport Tuesday morning.
The fishing lines are out but we are struggling to keep the lures free from sargasso weed, which there has been an abundance of in the Caribbean this year. We had a visit from 3 dolphins that played on the bow wave for a few minutes before getting bored and swimming away.
More news at midday tomorrow.
All the best,
JC
