We still have about 1834 miles to go so we made about 185 miles of progress today. Flew the spinnaker all day so that really helped. Going dead down wind is not a great point of sail for Catamarans although it’s a very comfortable ride with the double headsail setup. The big question now is whether to head west and around a high pressure, down and around it or pretty much straight towards our destination. The weather routing software shows it about 12 hours faster to head due west now and then go up and around. I don’t really trust the routing software so many days out so for now I’m planning to make our way a little more south and take advantage of the comfortable ride. We will likely adjust a little and head straight to Grenada where we are picking up family right after Christmas rather than having to do another passage. That way we’ll be able to scope out a few anchorage before they arrive.
I’ll finish Huckleberry Finn read by Elijah Wood tonight. Very good book and narration. Can’t believe I never read it before.
Was really great to be greeted by the dolphins as sunrise when I was unfurling the spinnaker. The little guys again. No idea what species they are. Also it was fun to see two other sailboat within a few miles. I called one and he was heading more west and going to St. Martin. It will be 7 full days tomorrow. It’s a long passage….
Absolutely love these updates Tim. Fascinating to learn what the experience is like. Thanks for sharing these updates!
Hi Tim and Jerri – Renée and I have been following your blog for quite some time. Thanks for sharing the updates – we’re living my dream through you vicariously. When we did a crossing from W. Palm Beach to Panama – about a few days into a 7 day crossing with huge swells I got sick and panicky – like I needed to get off this thing. Luckily I was talked back from the ledge by the captain but it was hard to realize that I was stuck. What mindset did you get into for this long a crossing?