At the moment we are all cooking from the heat and humidity. It is quite funny when talking to Jack (AA3GZ) on the net in the afternoon that he is freezing from the cold in Pennsylvania, with snow and ice around him. We are in the "Doldrums" while he is not!

For the past few days we have had very little wind and have been motoring. We expect to start picking up the wind again tomorrow (Monday) night and the forecast looks good with northeast trade winds well into the Windward Island chain. Let us hope that the ITCZ (the modern abbreviation for the old doldrums), remains more or less where it is and does not start moving north as we do. This can happen, as the ITCZ does fluctuate on a continual basis.

I still have an ETA for Tortola on December 24 but we still have to make a "pit-stop" in St Maarten to pick up load gear from the Moorings base before we sail the final 100 nautical miles to Tortola. It is going to be a bit of a juggle to get things right as I noticed that the 23rd is a Sunday - lets hope that the base manager in St Maarten has our gear ready when we arrive.

The title of this report also is linked with our dinner tonight - Mince Rotis, which Shaun and Shaheda are busy preparing (photograph above). They have been slaving away for some time and the trick, as far as I am concerned, is to produce the pancake in the limited area we have for such cooking. I must admit that the curry mince has smelt great whilst Terry and I have been drooling in anticipation.

Well, enough of that for now! Back to our ship spotting competition. At the moment the score card stands at Shaheda 5, Shaun 10, Terry 5 and myself 10. Over the next couple of days we again close with one of the shipping lanes before we change course and start heading north towards Barbados. We still have about four days to go before the competition ends and anything can happen to the score card.

For now, regards from all aboard until the next report.