Felix the artist...

We are now in a very typical Caribbean space. Flat clear waters with palm trees and forests on the shore side. Some say it is one of the better spots in the Caribbean. This is Charlotteville Tobago!!

Today was great. It started with a crayfish dive, but couldn't see any crayfish. Then it was off to the beach for a picnic lunch with another French family with a 7 year old boy. They braaied the fish he caught that morning and the kids played in the water for about 4 hours. We also did some snorkeling on the nearby reef. Then it was back to the boat for a relaxed sundowner and dinner. The kids went to sleep as their heads hit the pillow as they were so tired. Emmanulle read some more and I fiddled with my dive gear.

Yesterday I dived out a windlass handle for another boat so we shared a good bottle of wine.

Felix has become the budding artist / businessman as he did two pictures and proceeded into town to sell them. He managed to sell them for a total of $10 to two locals. I think they were very impressed with his courage. He also lost a tooth tonight the tooth fairy may give him a few more $'s.

Nearing Tobago

We are about one day from Tobago, 148NM. Tobago requires one to check in the moment you arrive and pay overtime if it is out of office hours, so we have had to sail slower for the last two days to ensure that we arrive in the morning. This is very difficult to do for a racing sailor.

The sea is still quite bumpy so we are looking forward to being in a quiet bay with clear water and good diving.

Our current position is 10deg 17,47' N and 58 deg 23,36'W and our speed is 6,5 knots with three reefs and a very small genoa.

Merlin is strong...

We are still sailing on a very bumpy sea with good waves. From time to time, one of them goes over the deck or sprays the full cockpit area. We are feeling a bite better (stomach wise). However, Greg has a very sore back.

The winds are around 20knts and the sky is still gray. We haven't tried fishing on that leg and don't feel like doing it. Our days are still quite simple with lots of TV as it is a good commun past time. Still no school and not much time spent outside (from time to time we really have the impression to be in a rollercoaster)

Not the best sailing conditions. Merlin is strong and leads us with no hesitation to our destination. We should reach Tobago Wed morning.

Our position is 8deg 36 N 54deg 43 W

Washing machine...

We feel like we are in a washing machine as the sea is really bunpy. The wind is from the side resulting in the large swells rocking the boat from side to side. The wind has continued blowing resulting in some fast sailing. Today we got over the 1000NM mark for this trip and should be in Tobago in about four days. That would result in a total time of 9 days vs our original plan of 14 days!

I think that we are all looking forward to some calm anchorages off white beaches.

Our current position is 7 deg 14,24'N and 51 deg 49,12'W we are doing between 7,5 and 9 knots.

On the move again

We are on the move again. We left Forteleza three and a half days ago and have already covered over 690NM. Fir the first two days we did over 400NM which for us is fast. The winds have been between about 15 and 20 knots all the time, mainly from the side so this makes for fast sailing. Even at night when we reduce sail we still do about 8 knots.

We have been very fortunate with the doldrums as we have not found them yet. Hope fully we will get through without too much motoring. The sea swell picked up a bit today with a large swell from the north and the East so it looks like the weather might be changing soon.

Our days are quite different on this leg as Emmanuelle and I are needing to sleep a lot more during the day as there are only the two of us for the night watches.

The kids are doing well although I think that they need some means of loosing some energy other than testing their parents. Clea is becoming a master at her puzzles and the boys are now explorers after seeming a documentary on rafting down the Nile (thanks Mike). Victor has taken up viewing the stars so we now hope for cloudless evenings so we can try to identify some more stars (Good news for Dad).

Our current position is 3 deg 48,57'N and 47 deg 11,37'W.