Pants day

We have made excellent progress over the past 24 hours. Between noon yesterday and noon today we have covered 170 miles, compared to the miserly 110 miles per day we averaged across the Atlantic. Picture a finely tuned crew, constantly tweaking sheets and grinding winches, eking out an extra tenth of a knot here and there - that wouldn’t be Shepherd Moon. Picture instead the skipper lounging in the cockpit in just his pants. Not, I hasten to add, common-or-garden pants, but high spec technical pants. Even so, it wasn’t a pretty sight. An early morning squall was to blame (which also explains why I was wearing pyjamas in the cockpit when we were pooped by a greybeard). My shorts and T-shirt took all day to dry in the 80%+ relative humidity, but my clever technical pants dried super-fast. Everybody should have a pair! We do have more than one set of clothes, but Friday is shower day and therefore clean clothes day; not Thursday.

The main reason we are making such good progress westwards is thanks to the Caribbean current which is whisking us along at around 2 knots. It should stay with us for the next 24 hours or so, but as we pass the Peninsula De La Guajira we may hit a back eddy, plus the wind is expected to drop. We are still on track to arrive before dark on Sunday evening, but we may need to break out the Blue Water Runner for the final stretch along the Colombian coast. Anyone for a swim?!