Atlantic Blog#13 - Saturday 6th December 2014

As Day 14 approaches, and the 1000 miles to go mark passes, it is beginning to dawn on the crew of intrepid Laros that the adventure is coming to a close.  We are not wishing our time away but the miles are seemingly skooting past. Each day brings its own trials and tribulations, but also its highs and memories.  We celebrated with warm bubbles 1800 miles under our belts, and 1000 to go, at 4.20pm this afternoon, a little earlier than predicted.  The wind swung to the south east last night, as Tanya and Danny grappled to keep Laros on course amid dramatic changes of wind direction and strength.  We have enjoyed fairly constant southeasterlies on our beam ever since, romping alone at 6s and 7s, and occasionally 8s.  We should be back to 150+miles/day.  Saturday in Rodney Bay seems a realistic prospect.  We each are selecting our chosen arrival time.  The day was glorious sunshine and relatively flat seas, and 3 of Laros' 10 winches were cleaned, greased and reassembled (making sleeping in the aft cabin when reefing the headsail soooooo much quieter!).  Plastics were chopped and stowed.  Meat in vacuum packed bags checked and thrown.  Sheets washed, dried and beds remade (how do you survive without a washing machine?).  And the bucket and cloth refrigerator tried - without success.  There are no fish in mid-Atlantic, fact, though the hardy among us continue to try their hand with the fishing tackle.  We caught sight of another boat on our port quarter perhaps 6 miles away.  She moved to our stern for the afternoon and was gone as dusk fell.  Today Danny found the music machine on board.  The only song appropriate, and I know many of you will be familiar with this, was The Mighty Atlantic by Runrig, followed, of course by their show-closing By the Banks of Loch Lomond. A fitting herald to dusk. Now we are enduring the Atlantic swell again, with a vengeance.  Corkscrewing at 7.5 knots under a cloudy moonlit sky will be one of the challenges remembered when it's all over.  The moon this evening at moonrise was the biggest, yellowest and brightest we have seen it. Full round and huge. It is with us all through the night.  We shall enjoy it each of the remaining 6 nights to StLucia.  How lucky are we!