Final Thoughts on 'THE TRIP'

It's been a week now since "THE TRIP" ended. We've had time to relax and reflect about how the trip went. My final thoughts are going to be what I remember most about the trip.

As Griff mentioned we didn't get rained on, but we were wet most of the time. This was mainly from waves spraying into the cockpit, but also there seemed to be a fine layer of moisture on every surface. I'm not sure if it was dew or spray from the sea, but whatever it was it was uncomfortable. As you can see from the pictures we were dressed accordingly. I never expected to be wearing 3 layers of clothing while sailing in the Caribbean but we were.

I am very greatful for Mr. Otto, the autopilot. There were times when we both had to be on deck working, like when the staysail came down, and we just put Mr. Otto in charge of where we were going and headed out to the deck. For those of you who worry about us - yes we were teathered to the boat when out on deck, in fact we had our lifejackets and teathers on the majority of the time. Now back to Mr. Otto. Remember the song "What a difference a day makes" well we were singing "What a difference a degree makes". Using Mr. Otto we could change our coarse one degree at a time and notice the difference in the way the wind caught the sails. Steering manually we were unable to steer so precisely and I for one was always overcorrecting my coarse.

On the short trips we have done there was always something for me to take pictures of. This trip didn't provide many photo opportunities. I did get lots of pictures of sunrises and sunsets. We experienced both red skies in the morning and at night. I'm not sure how that saying is supposed to apply - Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors delight. I can't say that sailing was any better with red sky at night.

We sighted one cargo ship a day, usually off in the distance, although we did have to tack a couple of times to get out of the path of a cargo ship. Theoretically they should adjust course for us since they were overtaking us and we are a sailboat. However, they are much bigger than we are and they cannot maneuver as easily so we take no chances and move first. The last two nights we spent at sea were filled with ships in comparison to the first five. As we neared the islands the cruise ships became more plentiful. At night they are lit up like Christmas trees and can be seen from many miles away.

We didn't even see much animal life. Flying fish were fairly plentiful almost every day. In fact when we got to Antigua we discovered five flying fish that had flown onto the deck and caught where the staysail was lashed to the deck. We also saw a brown booby every day. I decided that was our sign that land was somewhere out there.

The one thing from the trip that will remain with me is how much of a team Griff and I have become. We both took our turns at the helm with three hour watches during the twelve hours of darkness. When things happened, such as the staysail coming down, we worked together and did what had to be done. I will always appreciate the care he took to ensure that I ate something even though I didn't feel like eating.

Looking at the position reports we sent I realize what an accomplishment "THE TRIP" was and am amazed that we did it.

In answer to a couple of questions people had. I slept in the cockpit most of the time. As Griff says I can sleep almost anywhere. I found sleeping below deck was too noisy. Griff slept both in the cockpit and below deck, but I don't think he slept that well in either place. As far as how long the trip should have taken. As the crow flies it is 560 nautical miles. At an average of 5 knots that should have taken approximately 110 hours or 5 days. It took us 7 days less 4 hours with a stop of 8 hours in Nevis.