Crew member on GBR90 40 Degrees

We left you last night with dolphins, somewhere off St Kitts. Since then, we have been busy on our sightseeing tour (thank you to RORC for providing such a scenic course!). We continued our downiwnd run to Saba, arriving just after dawn, and rounded quite close to the spectacular, steep-sided island. The peak, Mt Scenery, is over 900 metres high, which creates quite a wind shadow. We were allowed to pass without slowing down too much.The next leg to St Barts was a fast reach, and once past the southeast corner, we were treated to some exhilirating downwind sailing, with the wind gusting to 25 knots from time to time, flying along at 15 knots to St Martin, which we rounded to starboard. The final mark in the northern part of the race course is the island of Tintamarre. All good things come to an end, and it was here that we began the long upwind slog to Guadeloupe.We are now about half way, and the wind has gone into the southwest, so our course to Guadeloupe is quite respectable at the moment. However, the wind has dropped, which is hampering progress as the boat slams gently into the oncoming waves. We must avoid the wind shadow and volcanic ash of Montserrat.We are not sure of the whereabouts of our fellow Class40 playmates. A few miles away, we hope.

Miranda Merron030024.02.2010