Again I'm falling behind on the updates. First the trip from Capetown to St Helena.

As we have been hearing from other for some years now, our trip north from Capetown north was really amazing. For all the changing weather we had on the first leg (good bad or indifferent) from Falklands to Capetown, the leg to St Helena could not have been any different. After about 4 hours of motoring to clear the wind shadow of table mountain, we found a gentle 15 kt breeze from the SE. And that was what it was like for the rest of the 1700 miles of the trip. Really. We had 14-18 kts for about 95% of the time, maybe a short squall where we would see 25, 30 at the max but always from the SE. Since we were heading NW, the wind was directly behind us the whole time. Now sailors are pretty particular about their wind you know. Not too strong, or too light now. Not from ahead, or mixed with water or snow please. And to tell the truth most sailor prefer not to go dead down wind. The sails are spread out wide, and the spinnaker pole is needed to hold the jib out and keep it from filling and collapsing with every roll of the boat. And roll she does. The worst part of going dead down wind is rolling. We figured out some ways to minimize the rolling, but mostly we just got used to it. The weather and the wind being so nice we figured it was a small price to pay. Day after day were the same. 1700 mile in 13.5 days. 126 miles per day, 5,24 kt average. We even set the fishing line out one day and caught one fish. A perfect size dorado for dinner for 2.

St Helena

Wow what an island. We spent a week, but could have easily spent months. There is no airport on the island so everyone and everything that is there was brought by sea. Very friendly locals, and great hikes. It is an island of contrast, where the eastern windswept volcanic hills are baron and cactus covered while the higher peaks are lush and fern covered. There are an amazing number of endemic species of insects and plants (those found no where else) and other plants that were imported hundreds of years ago that remain the same as they were with out the effects of cross pollination. We meet several other boater and found a nice community of like minded sailors stopping off in the mid ocean on their way to somewhere. We wish we could have stayed longer, but hurricane season is coming, and we need to start thinking about going back to work.

North to Grenada

One week after leaving St Helena we are finding much the same weather. The only difference is it is getting hotter! Yes it is hard to believe we started the season at 53 degrees south where it was cold, and we are now about to cross the equator. We had hoped to stop along the way, but now think we might be better to cross the doldrums in a different place and make directly for Grenada. Our first week we made 900 miles, with a 5.3 kt average. Currently we have 2690 miles to go. With any luck we might find the Guyana current which could boost our speed by 2 kts of we are lucky. We hope to be in Grenada by the end of the month.