Atantci Crossing: 2 weeks at sea (2/2)

Here we are after 2 weeks, 550 nautical miles from our destination, yet approaching fast.
But what has happened during this second week?
Let's start with the hard bit - the racing bit. Well, we learned the hard way two important lessons when it comes to sailboat racing:
- The first is that weather forecasts are susceptible to change, even the most advanced ones. Here in the atlantic all strategies are mid term strategies so these are based on mid term weather forecasts so while building a strategy it is advisable to consider a couple of different scenarios and fall back options.
- The second lesson is that beofre taking a route that is significantly longer than the straight one, you need to be absolutely sure that there is no other opton.
Net, we decided to take a southern route to avoid the low pressure / no wind area that was 3 days in front of us and by the time we arrived south we did hit an unexpected tropical wave that gave us absolutely no wind for a couple of days, lowering our daily averages from 180 to 130 and 100 nautical miles. Our ranking dropped consequently from the 30s to the 60s, as most of our competitors sailed on a more northern course and managed to sail fast despite the low pressure area while aviding the tropical wave.
We will aim at arriving in the first half of the peloton, maybe in the first third if we manage well the next 2-3 days in front of us, which is absolutely great for a not experienced crew like ourselves.

But let's come to the more fun part: we dramatically improved our fishing success rate (i.e. we manage to get on board one fish every two who took a bite): we got a tuna, a big dorade and another fish that I do not know the name in english... you cqn see the pictres on the blog!
This is very important because previously we lost 3-4 too big fishes in a row (amogst them a tuna that was possibly 10 kg and could swim faster than our boat) and catching a fish puts the entire crew in good mood!
The other fun part is that Tom and me took a swim in the middle of the ocean, with 4000 meters of deep water under our feet!! That was the great part of not having wind at all!!

Last, how do we all feel after a second week at sea? Personall I am enthousiastic I think I could sail a thrd and a forth week without problems. Having plenty of water for fresh shouers and fishing regularly allows the basic conforts that are needed.
But I am sure this is nt the case for everybody on board, first because some of the crew members are randomly hit by sea sickness, second because the absence of wind is quite difficult to manage from a psicological
standpoint: you are there and all your efforts materialise in a few knots speed... Yet I think this is a great adventure, we ar luky that we are all well and safe (there were a lot of accidents on other boats in this second
week) and I look forward arriving in St Lucia and eat a big steak.

Ideed I was forgetting about the food: well Jean Luis and I are doing or best to keep the crew in good conditions: me with diverse pasta and rice dishes (we even had mushroom risotto), Jean-Luis with great fish dishes (I loved the tagine de thon). So far so good - i you have good recepees post them on the blog!!

That's all for this second week, another update will come from Saint Lucia
- please visit the blog for daily updates and we love to receive your comments from the blog!

By the way many thanks to alll who visit the blog regularly and post their comments!

Sergio from tiger Lily