To the long distance and circumnavigation sailors, a 650 mile passage is not that out of the ordinary, but it has been a first for us. All being well we arrive in Grand Cayman on Saturday the 21st in the morning, which will be seven days at sea.

Mandy has mostly babysat us as we have stumbled through with minimal chores, sickness and sleeping. She almost tells us what she needs in the way of sail changes and steering and although our performance has been below par, she has ploughed onwards, eating up the miles with her dependable enthusiasm.

Somehow, I picked up a horrid flu virus in Cartegena; probably off the shopping cart, while doing our provisioning. On top of mild seasickness (from being away from the boat for a couple of weeks) flu is not good. Richard got through with odd combinations of food being thrown to him, but by the fourth night we were both suffering from fatigue and maybe some dehydration. We slept randomly and our usual three to four hour watch schedule deteriorated to an hour or two of rest where we could steal it. Mandy batted away undaunted.

At the end of our first night out in big seas the auto pilot began pulling out of its embedded hole. In successive attempts, Richard tried three different epoxy glues to re-bed it, finally trying to bolt it through the wood. Nothing held for very long. We employed the wind vane to steer, but to date we have not been able to get it working dependably and we found ourselves again being pulled to windward and off course. We worked so hard on installing it correctly in San Diego, but it has never been right somehow. We ought to try and get some kind of wind vane guru to give us a bone.

By the fifth day out the movement and misalignment of the repaired auto pilot broke the arm inside the barrel altogether and that was that. Our next and only option was to tie the tiller mid-ships with bungee cord to allow us some hands free time, but the prospect of hand steering for thee days and nights was unpleasant. The trade winds blow consistently and strongly at night, and it worked reasonably in this situation to tie the tiller, we just can't leave it unattended.

Despite everything we have racked up 100 mile days and all that is left is the distance of our first tentative voyages from San Diego to Catalina, back in the early days with Mandy.
All things being equal, I am certain that I am not cut out for long weeks at sea. Crossing an ocean for a week has been an experience I would not want to miss, with many amazing moments, but I am seriously questioning the whole Atlantic crossing thing in my own mind. Meanwhile, I know we are going to love the Cayman and Bahama Islands - with plenty of stops along the way.