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We made good progress west yesterday, and we didn’t break anything! Even the Blue Water Runner behaved, at least in a relative sense, although that bar is set very low; about sea level to be precise. Yesterday morning we saw a squall approaching on the radar and decided it would be best to furl away the Blue Water Runner until it was safely past. We’d managed to get it more or less furled but it was still a bit baggy around the clews (the bit where the ropes are attached, or more accurately, the sheets).

Now, where were we? A lot has happened since our last blog entry on the 4th December, but some things never change. This morning the Blue Water Runner ended up in the sea, but this time it was down to user error rather than equipment failure, but more on that in tomorrow’s blog. Having arrived safely in Saint Lucia we scooped up Daisy and her boyfriend Chris, and spent a glorious week or so sailing down through the Grenadines.

Well we made it, or we’ve very nearly made it. We are within a stone’s throw of St Lucia (or at least a stone thrown by anyone other than the current crew of Shepherd Moon. The throwing gene seems to have gone awry in this family, and a well aimed stone is as likely to head for Cape Verde as St Lucia). With a pod of dolphins helping shepherd us towards port, we just have to gybe the genoa and head for the finishing line.

Yesterday morning our daughter made her way from her flat in London to Gatwick airport. The weather this past week has been freezing in the UK, and there is talk of snow at Christmas. At around 10 a.m. she climbed on a plane and nine hours later she arrived in St Lucia to be met by a wall of heat. In those nine hours we travelled just 44 miles. By comparison, Shepherd Moon left the UK in early August, and except for a six-week sojourn in Lagos, Portugal, the rest of the time she has been plodding her way towards the Caribbean.

We haven’t actively broken anything in the last 24-hours but we have noticed that something that wasn’t broken 10 days ago, now seems to be broken. We keep seeing one of the other ARC+ boats (Vega) on the horizon, but when we call them on the VHF radio, we get no response. They are a very friendly Norwegian family and so I don’t think it’s because they are ignoring us. They also don’t show up on our AIS (Automatic Information System - a clever bit of electronics that transmits your position, course, and speed etc.