1 December 2003

It seems we are destined to point in all the wrong directions. Berenice rolls spectacularly with the swell which makes running without jibing a non-starter. So, we continue to sail with the wind 120 degrees off the bow which takes us south or north of our destination. We are approaching 1800nm from St Lucia and once we are 1700nm away we can celebrate 1/3 of our passage completed – hopefully today.

Berenice is a beautiful boat and is making 8kn in 15kn winds. She doesn’t show her age and the proud crew (all of us) really enjoying sailing her. We seem to gain passengers on a regular basis and one of the morning tasks is to find the flying fish who have hitched a lift and return them to the deep (for they will fly no more) before they start to smell. David has landed another large yellow-bodied fish. Without a pocket book of Atlantic fish, we are unable to identify it but it tastes good. Warned of squalls ahead, we are keeping a radar lookout but as yet we have only experienced very small wind shifts beneath lonely dark clouds and no rain. So, we have to assume there is more to come.

Berenice is behaving very well and a couple of hours running the generator seems to be sufficient to supply the charger with enough to fill our batteries and the water maker with enough to fill our water tanks. On Sunday, Bel prepared fantastic roast lamb with roast potatoes, caulifower, sweetcorn, runner beans etc. Before that Dan prepared sushi fish from our catch. So, we seem to be surviving OK. As soon as the the trades turn to NE we shall improve our progress enormously. We are still ready.