We upped anchor at 0800 and were outside San Juan harbour by 0830. It's nice to get an early start so you can start getting settled into your routine. We sailed with the wind aft of the beam at up to 20 knots, which was perfect, but we also had quite a large sea which was not. Our main concern was figuring out when each of us was to sleep. Tim has a number of SSB Radio times when he needs to be up to listen to the days weather, to download the days weather, and to listen to various Radio Nets. We decided that he'd sleep first 2100 to 0001 - there is the DooDah Radio Net from the Bahamas at 1700, then Chris Parker with Weather Information at 1800 and then the Salty Dog Radio Net, which is made up of boats heading up the East Coast of the States. The Salty Dogs Net is mostly for interest as they are much further along than we are but it's interesting to listen to their chat. So I'd keep watch from 2100 to 0001, then he'd do 0001 to 0300 and then I'd do 0300 to 0600 and wake Tim in time to listen to the 0630 Chris Parker Weather Broadcast.
It was a good plan except for the nasty swell that made lying in bed for 3 hours begin rolled this way and that unconducive to uninterrupted sleep and by 2300 he was up. We then decided that I'd sleep from 2300 to 0200, but I couldn't sleep either so we went on to just sleeping as long as we could, and Tim didn't bother with the 0630 Weather and settled for downloading it later the the day.
This might well be as dull as dishwater, and I'm not saying it isn't, but sleep is important and we did spend a huge amount of time trying to get the watches right. Welcome to our life!
Day 2 was much the same as Day 1 but the waves were more from the stern which is much more comfortable and we managed keep our planned watch and sleep pattern. Hurrah!
Up until today, Day 3, the weather has been overcast with gusty winds and sometimes a sprinkling of rain. Effective and efficient sailing conditions but not a huge amount of fun. Last night there wasn't a star to be seen. Today the skies have cleared the wind is 10 to 15 knots aft of the beam (just where you want it to be) and the sailing and living on board is as easy as we've had it. Tonight will be omelet and salad rather than one of my pre-cooked frozen meals which I will save for a rougher day. We are expected to have similar wind and weather for the next few days, later in the week there is a change that may give us an unexpected stopover in the Bahamas to avoid weather further north. We will keep you posted!
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At 19/05/2017 19:45 (utc) our position was 22°39.04'N 070°18.98'W
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