As I write this we are under motor with Chris on the helm about 150 miles out from St Lucia.
Yesterday was a good day with solid mileage, the Parasailor working well in winds of 12 - 15 Knots and Harry keeping us on a good course. As we approached nightfall after a good day we were confident that with the winds we would make good progress over night. Over confidence is not something I would accuse any of us after this trip, but we retired (except for those on shift!) feeling pretty good. Alarms went off at 01.40 as Rob was having problems. The Parasailor had blown out in 15 Knots of wind! So Jon, Nigel and myself lowered the sail and moved on to the Jib which was giving us about 6 knots. By the 7am the wind had shifted so that we could not maintain speed and direction so we went on to the iron sail instead for a few hours. The aim now is to raise the main at first light and then (hopefully) have a relatively plain sail the rest of the way into St. Lucia.....we hope!!!!
The Parasailor has about a two meter tear, we will look to see if we can complete temporary repairs as soon as we get light, failing that we will wait for St Lucia.
ETA at Rodney Bay Marina will be somewhere after midnight St. Lucia time.......one way or another! :-)
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