Sailing Jeannius: Day 5: St Lucia to the San Blas Islands

I only have to do one night watch – the 1 am to 4 am and manage to sleep until I am due on.

When I am doing a night watch, especially one where there is no moon therefore nothing to look at except total blackness, I have a lot of time to think. Too much time in some ways. I think about the life I have left behind and especially the people I love and how they are getting on with their lives without me. Will I fit in again when I eventually return from this adventure? Will someone else have filled the gap in their lives while I am away? Life goes on and people change. It’s a fact. I know I shouldn’t spend time worrying about it, after all, it was my decision to do this with Mike, and there is nothing I can do to change anything now, but I do worry all the same. That’s just me.

But minutes after all this worrying and circumspection, it can all change. I look up at the stars and see thousands of them, along with the Milky Way and the constellation of the Southern Cross. It is breathtakingly beautiful and I remember the reasons for having this adventure while we are still young enough to enjoy it. Tonight we are zipping along at 9 knots with winds between 28 and 35 knots. In fact it was so ‘lively’ earlier that Mike took the main sail down and Jeannius is managing almost the same speed with just the genoa out. Mike was very pleased with his new rigging arrangement as he took the main sail down by himself from the safety of the cockpit. At least that was money well spent!

Flying and skating across huge unseen waves is exhilarating stuff. At times I feel like shrieking into the dark like the U-boat commander in the series “Das Boot” when he streaked through Gibraltar in the night, but I control myself and settle for a little jig in the cockpit instead.

Later in the morning we are exactly on our waypoint bearing at last and are now heading in completely the right direction. The sea is unpleasant and lumpy at first. Things fly everywhere in the bathroom. I can only manage Waitrose Ginger Nut biscuits for breakfast as I feel a little sick but gradually during the morning the sea settles a bit and I take my Netbook into the cockpit and catch up on the blog but I keep looking up at the horizon.

We put the main sail back up but leave the two reefs in which gives us a much more comfortable sail in the afternoon and slows us down which is what Mike wants now to ensure that we arrive at the San Blas islands during daylight on Wednesday rather than the dark on Tuesday night.

Photo: Lots of rope holding the boom down prevents accidental jibes

Every day now we find dead flying fish in the trampoline which Mike now uses for bait. This works and he catches a nice fat Black Fin Tuna which has a very definite life force – he thrashes and thumps his way across the cockpit despite the copious amounts of alcohol which we pour into its gills. Along the way he manages to throw up his own dinner – inch long little fish and squid, and sprays droplets of blood all over the cockpit. He does eventually give up and Mike guts him and I do the more artistic job of filleting. We had defrosted some chicken for a curry tonight but can’t resist having the tuna so Jim cooks the curry anyway and we put it in the fridge for tomorrow.

Photos: The bloodbath that follows the catch of the day