Firefly, 6 December 2001
17° 43 N 43° 23 W
Distance to St Lucia 1,037 nm

David Glenn in the YW office in London today told me that Caribbean guru, Joel Byerly from Antigua told him that so far this is the most windless Caribbean season he can remember in 45 years. Out here, 1,000 miles still to go, I would tend to agree with him.

Our headlong romp of the last 10 days has firmly hit the buffers and now, miraculously, we glide along at 4 knots in wind so light as to be barely perceptible. There are some advantages of light, easily driven hulls and with a heavy time penalty for engine use I will be reluctant to start the donk unless it looks as though I’ll miss the deadline to meet my family who arrive out for a holiday on 16 December.

For the full Firefly report and a log of previous reports, use the ARC links on the Yachting World and ybw homepages.