Jer:
I can see the lights of Grenada 33 miles away! We are on target to arrive at dawn.
As Tim mentioned, today was an active day. We wanted to keep our speed up so kept the screecher up most of the time (I think we furled it once, but then put it back out), but there was a lot of steering going on. It was fine, but every time I went to do anything (brush my teeth, heat up some water, send an email), we’d suddenly be charging along at high speed and I don’t think Tim got a lot of rest. I actually brushed my teeth at the helm while adjusting course, but I think we got up to 11 knots while I was putting the toothpaste on. We probably would have slowed down and chilled out more if we weren’t anxious to get in. At this moment, it’s borderline whether I should reef or not, but I can see the little system on the radar (and in the actual sky) and it’s nearly past us so think we can ride it out. The screecher is not out.
Well, 20 minutes later, we did reef and post reef got up to an 18 knot surf. This boat loves to surf and sometimes it’s fun. The front has passed, but we’ll keep the reef in. No sense flipping Agility at this point in the passage plus it’s still too far to swim. Tim will sleep better if we’re going slower too. It’s gotten to the point where I can almost guess how fast we’re going while lying in bed and it’s definitely less relaxing when speeding along.
My task for the night is to get the Q flag out. That should kill about 30 seconds of time. We’re still flying the Spanish flag and it’s necessary when entering a new port of entry to put a yellow flag up until Agility and crew are appropriately checked in with the authorities and then the flag will be replaced with the Grenada flag.
I can’t say I feel much regret that I won’t be posting in the middle of the night for a long time now!
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