Multiple milestones

Yesterday saw us pass two major milestones. The first of these was going through the 1,000-mile mark, that’s 1,000 miles travelled since leaving Cape Verde. As well as being significant in itself, it also means we now qualify for full membership of the Ocean Cruising Club rather than just associate members. On the downside, it means we need to buy a new burgee (a small club flag - that’s not a flag for small clubs but a flag that is diminutive in size). The other major milestone was that we went through the halfway mark yesterday evening. Too late for celebratory halfway steaks but we did try and mark the occasion with a three-person plus one chart plotter selfie. Needless to say, even with Vanessa’s newly purchased selfie -stick, the picture didn’t come out, despite all the bobbing of heads and threading of bodies to make the composition look balanced. Personally, I think selfie-sticks should be banned!

These achievements were achieved with little of no help from the wind. It’s amazing to think that we are here, in the middle of the Atlantic, and yet you could generate more breeze through your hair by going for a brisk walk! This presents a bit of a problem when you still have a thousand miles to go and your daughter arrives in St Lucia this coming Saturday. The solution - an Excel spreadsheet! (I may have retired but clearly the analyst in me hasn’t). I have modelled the distance we have to go, how much fuel we have left and what speed we can do when motoring. As well as being very beautiful, my spreadsheet tells me that we have sufficient fuel to motor for 10- hours a day and then as long as we can achieve 4 knots the rest of the time, we will average 120 nautical miles a day. That gets us to St Lucia by lunchtime on the 4th. What could possibly go wrong?!