The past couple of days have seen some great sailing but with a fair bit of motoring as well. The wind clocked steadily from Southwest to West when it was in the mid to upper teens to Northwest to North when it dropped to under 10 knots. Since our heading was Southsoutheast, boat speed dropped too much at that point so we resorted to the “iron genny” again. We felt quite alone during these couple of days as we didn’t spot any other vessels either visually or on AIS, and the VHF radio was remarkably devoid of any signs of transmissions. However, that has subsequently changed as we approached the way point suggested by Chris Parker where he expected the Easterly Trade Winds to start filling in and we have now spotted at least 4 other boats. We are now on the last leg approaching the Virgin Islands and are having a fabulous beam reach with about 15 knots of wind and boat speed around 8 knots. It’s a bit cloudier today so we may get some rain squalls but nothing too serious. Attempts at fishing have yet again been unsuccessful.

IMG_0966The daytime temperatures have risen considerably, especially yesterday when there was a cloudless sky and it was bit airless onboard due to a following wind. Consequently I postponed my bread-making until today.

A little sparrow moved onboard yesterday. Perhaps we made the mistake of giving him a few crumbs and a drink of water because he then became quite tame and moved down below decks! We soon let him know he wasn’t welcome down there, especially when what went in started coming out the other end …. on Michael’s pillow! He reappeared this morning, presumably refreshed after his rest because he soon flew off.