Day 16 - 250 miles to go ! And lots of company...

After 16 days and 2,700 miles of ocean sailed across the Atlantic in Ruth II, with only 250 miles to go to St. Lucia, we have plenty of company! There are 3 yachts also doing the ARC who all left Las Palmas with us at the same time within 5 miles of us, and a fourth non-ARC French yacht only 10 miles away! This morning we passed very close to a Finnish yacht "Another Brick" (captured on photo), there's also a Belgian yacht "Sylvia" just behind on our port side and a Croatian catamaran yacht "Jolie" just behind on our starboard side. We also keep in touch with other yachts within 100-200 miles around us with daily position and weather updates using a local SSB (shortwave band radio) net, so we can all keep up with progress, weather conditions and any issues each yacht may have, offering advice, support and help if necessary. Life on board carries on as usual with a watch roster and 3 hourly changes, daily rig and chafe (rope wear) checks, reading, eating or chilling out back on the stern seats or in front on the bow cushions - which can be very bouncy and rolly in the waves ( some of the crew take no chances and hang on for dear life!) Getting closer to the Caribbean means rainy and windy squalls are now a common hazard (with more forecast for tonight), so those on watch have to be alert to reduce the sail area before the squall arrives with often short-lived strong winds as well as rain - rain squalls can be seen by day and picked up on radar at night. Ruth & Liam have provisioned brilliantly for the crossing, so we still have plenty of food and drink on board including some pre-cooked meals Ruth prepared in Lanzarote and kept in the freezer as well as cheese, sliced meats and fresh fruit & veg, most of which has kept really well. We also bake fresh bread every day. Ruth II is equipped with a watermaker, so Liam makes water every day. We still have cans of soft drinks left and lots of beer and wine too, as we have essentially had a "dry" boat since we left Las Palmas over 2 weeks ago. We all get together at mealtimes for lunch and dinner, just before it gets dark. We decided to delay changing the hours as we cross time zones so we will get longer evenings, and only put the clock back an hour for the third time today. So "boat time" is now only 1 hour

ahead of St. Lucia and 3 hours behind Las Palmas. It's been a fantastic trip and the company on board has fabulous! Liam & Ruth (and James!) have been so welcoming and generous and we could never thank them enough for including us in this great adventure, despite all the ongoing Covid issues. It now seems we will be passing the finish line and getting into Rodney Bay in the dark in the early hours of Wed morning (Dec 8), but with lots of company - hopefully we can stay ahead of the boats around us, but we'll all have great celebrations and a rum punch or two on arrival!!

Brian