Day 4: Tortola, BVI to Bermuda - 17/07/12

We continue to motor sail with both engines on all through the night.  The wind is light and right on the nose.  The sea is like a mill pond.  No sickness in sight.  The bucket has been tucked away.

During his watch Mike starts to watch a TV mini series called ‘The Bermuda Triangle’ so when I get up and see it on the computer screen ready to run, I watch it too.  How bright is that?  Watching something about ships that disappear into thin air when you are sailing less than 80 miles from one of the triangle’s sides!?  Good job it’s really crap otherwise I would have been really spooked.  It’s almost as good as me watching ‘The Perfect Storm’ when Mike was crossing the Atlantic and I hadn’t heard from him that day.  Jeez.

For the first time since starting out, I risk doing my sudoku then read.  My morning nap time is spent lying sideways across my bed so the sun can’t get me but with the hatch wide open so I have a lovely breeze blowing across me drifting in and out of sleep.

The sea in the afternoon sun looks so beautiful.  Being so calm, and with a clearer sky than we have seen for days, the sun makes it sparkle like it is sprinkled with a million diamonds.  The camera can’t capture it but I’m happy to sit and stare.  I see nothing all afternoon except one solitary bird which circles the boat for a while then takes off.  Then I see a line in the sky – a plane – the first I have seen.  So there is still life out there!

Mike checks the diesel situation when he gets up and discovers that so far we have only used about a quarter of a tank so we will be fine even if we have to motor all the way there.

By the evening the wind has started to come south a little and picks up just enough for us to turn one engine off.  For a while, we can turn them off completely.

Photo:  Calm sea at sunset

I know I am a fair weather sailor and today is a lovely day for one of those!

Our position is:   27 degs, 11 mins N, 64 degs 38 mins W

Distance so far:  529 miles