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With St. Lucia just over the horizon, the MooCrew swear they can smell the pina coladas and hear the faint sounds of steel drums. These delusions are typical of sailors who have been at sea for too long.

After all the challenges of the first half of the passage, we thought that when we found the trade winds, we would have a nice easy starboard gybe the rest of the way to St. Lucia.  Once again this passage is not like it was advertised in the brochure.  The “northeast trade winds” have been oscillating between east-northeast and east-southeast for the last couple of days.  We’ve now gybed three times in an attempt to stay near the course line, with not much joy.  The sea state has been confused with three or four wave/swell patterns to toss us about and make steering (and just plain moving about) a constant challenge.

We had settled into a nice groove last evening, sailing a bit high of the course on starboard gybe.  Merima baked the little mahi-mahi we caught yesterday in a teriyaki sauce and served it with rice and a fresh vegetable stir fry.  Yes, thanks to green bags and her fastidious food management, we still have fresh fruits, vegetables and lettuce after 17 days at sea.  And we managed to find another bottle of dry white Spanish wine in the medicine locker to go with the meal.
At about 0300 this morning, a few small squalls appeared on the radar screen.  They looked more like local showers, so we just carried on with the spinnaker, sailing deep when the breeze got up a bit with no dramas.  Winds in the mid to high 20’s and large waves gave us some nice surfs, with the fastest being around 15 knots.
At 1000 hours a rather gnarly looking squall appeared on our stern quarter and we decided to get rid of the kite (before God did it for us) and let it pass by.  Winds got up to nearly 30 knots and we made excellent progress reaching with white sails for a few hours until winds abated and we could reset the kite.
Another gybe onto port and we were on course-for awhile.  The winds oscillated back to east-northeast and we were once again low on the course line. More squalls are appearing on the horizon.  Looks like there will be not much rest for us until we get to Rodney Bay Marina.
Our position at noon today was 14° 51′ north by 57° 21′ west.  Our noon to noon run was 212 miles.
By the time we finished lunch today we had less than 200 miles to run to our waypoint on the north end of St. Lucia.  We anticipate having real pina coladas in hand and actually hearing the steel band sometime tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) St. Lucia time (GMT -4).
Cheers, George, Merima, Graham, Charles, and Kurt

ARC 2010 – 8 Dec, 2010. IRC, Racing, Invitation Cruising, Oysters Only

We’re happy to be in the trade winds, but they are not giving us much of a break. The winds are generally less than forecast, but up and down between 14 and 22 knots. They are also quite shifty, and with a quartering sea, staying on course is a challenge. The autopilot course correct function died a couple days ago so we have to power steer to (what we hope to be) the course and then reset the pilot. It is a less than perfect situation and it’s challenging for whoever is the duty watch person on the box. All this, and the breeze has been slowly clocking to the east, pushing us to the north of our course line. And it’s HOT and HUMID.As the winds eased a bit yesterday afternoon, we changed up to the big kite.  A few hours later, just before sundown we changed back down in case we ran into squalls in the evening.  Our kite “peels” are taking about 1-1/2 minutes, according to the Admiral.

As the sun was setting on the western horizon last evening, a sliver of a new moon appeared a few degrees above it.  Otherwise, it was a clear night lit only by the type of bright starlight one sees out where there are no ambient lights to wash them out.
Merima made sea breezes for happy hour to cool down the crew before serving up a fill of fettuccini carbonara accompanied by a dry Spanish rosé.  An occasional scoop of lemon sorbet coming up from the galley also helps to cool us off every now and then.
After dinner we laughed to the humorous cruising songs of Eileen Quinn on the stereo.
Other than being warm and muggy, it was an uneventful night and the only thing that appeared on the radar screen was a lit weather buoy that we left about four miles to starboard early this morning.
As the fleet converges on a single point at the northern tip of St. Lucia, we half expect to see another ARC boat here and there, but the standings show that about 220 of the 240 boat fleet are actually astern of us.  It looks as if we’ll miss the Early Arrivals party on Wednesday evening by less than a day, but based on the fleet’s distances to run to the finish, so will about 95% of the ARCers.
We received an email from a friend of Kurt’s who is a teacher back in Auckland and whose class of 10 year olds is following our progress.  In a recent homework assignment, the class was asked to write a poem.  One boy submitted the following with Kurt’s flying fish incident in mind: “Glide glide through the air, plop splat on the deck, shrieking screaming like a girl – Kurt on night watch.”
We’ve made good progress towards St. Lucia since noon yesterday, covering 217 nautical miles.  Our noon position today was 14° 40′ north by 54° 01′ west and we had approximately 400 miles to run to St. Lucia.
Oh, and did I mention, its HOT!
Cheers, the MooCrew

Cowabunga!  Surf’s up and we’re moving along nicely.  The northwest swell we were climbing over has slowly clocked around to the north-northeast and we’re starting to get some nice surfs when the winds freshen up.  With winds in the low 20’s this morning we were surfing at 14.5 knots.

Sailing conditions have been a bit lumpy but generally pretty fast since early yesterday morning when we re-set a spinnaker.
We had a delightful happy hour last evening.  For sundowners we had a refreshing gin and tonic (with lemon).  Charles gave Merima a much deserved break from galley duty last night and cooked up an excellent Indian curry.
It looked to be another uneventful night of sailing until a line of squalls appeared on the radar screen at about 0430 hours this morning.   We     quickly took the spinnaker off and went down to white sails.  The breeze increased to the low to mid 20’s and went forward so we didn’t give up any speed as we powered through the disturbances.
By sunrise the squalls had evaporated and we were able to set the kite again. The wind continued to blow strong and we were getting in plenty of surfs in the 11 to 14 knot range all morning.
We caught a small trevally on the meat hook, but decided to let it go in hopes of getting something a bit larger.
Graham and Kurt continue to entertain us with their sick jokes.
Ship’s clocks were retarded one hour to GMT-3 hours.
Everyone is a bit tired today due to sleep interruption.
Our noon to noon run was the best so far on this passage at 217 nautical miles.  Our noon position was 14° 02′ north by 50° 12′ west.
The distance to run to St. Lucia is now less than 600 miles and we anticipate landfall some time on Thursday.
Cheers, George, Merima, Charles, Graham and Kurt

For the first time in our Atlantic Crossing, we have spent the entire day sailing directly toward St. Lucia.  With 15-17 knots on our beam, we spent yesterday afternoon reaching with the shy kite at speeds between 8 and 10 knots.  A 3-4 meter swell from the north made the ride a bit rolly, but we were enjoying the fast ride and watching the range number click below 1000 miles to go and the time to go occasionally pop below 100 hours when the speed got up.

By sunset the roll would occasionally pitch us over till the clew of the spinnaker and the boom would touch the water.  We decided to play it a bit conservative for the evening and changed down to the jib and staysail.  The weather forecast and some lightning flashes to the south had us a bit concerned that we might experience a squall.
At happy hour just before sundown, we celebrated the distance to run dropping down to three digits.  After, Merima served up an excellent fish chowder made from the fresh caught mahi-mahi and some other goodies from the galley, along with some fresh baked French rolls.  It went well with a bottle of dry El Coto Rioja white wine.
We carried on the celebration after dinner by singing along to some Jimmy Buffett music.
Even after changing down to white sails, which slowed Moonshadow by .5 to 1 knot, we managed to overtake another ARC boat during the evening.  We’re not sure who she was, but it must have been one of the larger cruising or race boats in the fleet.
As it turned out, it was another beautiful and uneventful night at sea.  With no moon and mostly clear skies, it was bright star light all night.
Winds went fairly soft in the early hours of the morning, and at first light we hoisted the shy kite and got the boat moving a bit better.  The breeze clocked and eased a bit so around 1000 we changed up to the big kite, brought the pole aft and got her moving into 8’s and 9’s.
An hour later, the winds were up to 20 knots, gusting to 23, so it was time to change back down.  I have to say, the guys have the routine down so we can now get from white sails to kite, kite to white sails, or change kites within a couple minutes.  And we are NO race boat.
Our day’s run of 196 nautical miles reduced our distance to run to St. Lucia by the same amount.  Our noon position was 13° 58′ north by 46° 40′ west.
The crew are about to declare a beverage mayday.  We’ve been out of beer for two days and are almost out of coke (only to be used to mix with rum).  The level of intensity in making the boat go faster is increasing as happy hour drink options are reduced and the boys are sussing out local rum distilleries in the islands.
Cheers, the MooCrew