Atlantic Crossing Part 2 - Day 8

Our noon position on 22/12/ 2010 was 16.21N / 27.21W. Our  mileage run from 1540 on the 21/12  to noon today was 176 miles.

The miles certainly roll by when you are hooting along with the trade winds. Our GPS tells us (but do we believe it) that at the speed we are going we will be sipping pina coladas under a palm tree in  ten days or less, yee ha !

The reality is the weather god's will make up their own minds and then we will just be a pawn in their hands.
At present we are still sailing with one reef in the main and a jib. Even though the wind angle is just right for our screecher the breeze is a little too boisterous particularly given the confused sea state.
Other than a dawn sighting of another catamaran heading west we have had no other boating company today.   We did have a large pod of very fat dolphins come by and swim along with us for the best part of an hour. They are always fun to have around. Some are very athletic and Annie managed to get a great photo of one in full flight.  A couple of flying fish fatalities were spotted on the foredeck this morning and the captain gave them a burial at sea.

Carrying too much weight, this fellow
couldn't quite get airborne



A rare shot, dolphin in full flight!



                                                                                                             



We have just had our 1800 UTC radio reports from some of the other boats and a few are around 50 miles from us and some are over one hundred. The fleet is starting to spread out. Two of the faster boats "Tehani Li" and "No Rehearsals" are within 50 miles ahead of us and while they left a few hours earlier than GWTW we remain hopeful of being competitive for line honors in Barbados.

So all in all it was a pretty quiet day on GWTW. Liam spent time in his shed fixing the broken gearbox dip stick, riveting stuff, and Annie having been instructed to do anything to make the boat go faster did a load of washing lightening the boat with every wash cycle.

But the real highlight of the day was finally connecting to a sailmail station. After trying many many stations Nova Scotia got the guersey.  While we may seem a little isolated here in the North Atlantic we still have radio contact with our cruising friends and email contact with the outside world.



We are not alone.