Skipper Steve is not a happy skipper. The weather forecast promised north west winds of ten to fifteen knots. Instead we are slogging into headwinds spawned out of somewhere near Hades, which appears to be south east of us – the direction that we are trying to go.
And to make things just that little bit spicier, the autohelm unit on the boat is intermittently shutting off. The autohelm is a small computer unit that automatically steers the boat on a compass course preset by the user. Without it, the helmsperson has to steer the boat themselves – a rather draining job, considering we are moving 24 hours a day.
By 11pm, Steve has had enough, and steers us across Turks Passage to the banks just south of Grand Turks Island. Ellie navigates us across the shallow banks to a small uninhabitated island called Cotton Cay. The island is low lying, so gives only minimal shelter from the wind, but there is no swell here. We drop anchor and head down for some sleep. It will be an early start tomorrow.
Hmmmmmm…. I wonder if the ultra rich actually do any sailing
I've started printing off the best and most interesting of all your photos on our new HP Photosmart printer, which has 6 colour cartridges: black, yellow, light cyan, dark cyan, light magneta and dark magneta. The quality of the prints is amazing.
Land Ahoy – I bet it was a nice sight. At least at sea you wouldn't have had any fears of wild dogs chasing you like in Western Asia. I've been keeping a distant and 'silent' eye on your progress, and just wondering if the recent time you've had caused any second thoughts about the skateboard? Your friends in Azerbaijan were certainly surprised (not negatively I must add), so keen to see if your plans are the same? Best of luck, and hope the yacht owner has a nice tip for your guys (surely this would be the norm)??? Andy
Andy! Great to hear from you. No second thoughts about the skateboard yet. The roads have been mostly smooth and kind to me. I lok forward to getting on the road in the US.
Dunno about a tip from the owner – he's already forked out plenty for the fuel etc.