Firefly, 5 December 2001
19° 25 N, 41° 12 W
Distance to St Lucia, 1,177 miles

Just how do you measure the half way mark on a passage like this? Is it distance from point of departure measured against distance to destination? Or is it mid-way differences in latitude and longitude?

By whatever way you measure it, Firefly crossed the divide well over 24 hours ago and is now steaming almost directly towards St Lucia, all sail set in 15 knots of breeze at 7 knots, under a blue sky and in the flattest sea we have seen since Las Palmas. This is what we came for.

To make the most of the quieter weather this morning has been taken up with domestics and deck tasks. Things like the cutlery rack, which has been a lucky dip glory hole, have been re-arranged and re-located. Duncan spotted a lone cockroach in the early hours and so after a big clean up of obvious places, several ‘roach motels have been laid.

These work by encouraging the cockroaches to nibble at some chemical they find irrestistable but which at the same time sterilises them and others the come into contact so in the end the boat is roach free. It’s a lot cleaner, anyway, than the trick used by some cruisers of mixing boric acid with condensed milk. They eat the paste and then explode.

To see the rest of Andrew’s reports from Firefly, click on the ARC links on the ybw and Yachting World homepages.