It was a highly anticipated trip, as we have many more ocean passages to come and this would perhaps determine how the rest would fall into play. Thankfully I can now report, that yes, we did indeed make it, and overall quite happily.
The trip was approxiamtely 550 miles in length, and we saw Aruba around midnight on Sunday. After a very windy trip, landfall was happily made this morning when we docked to clear in. Unfortunately we had to motor for the entire night up the coast of Aruba waiting for daylight hours -tedious, but easy and calm compared to the previous windy trip!
Our first night of sailing was full of events. Dinner had been made at anchor, so was served up just as we left. Girls were showered before we left, so it was PJs and to bed. Poor Isabelle, didn't seem right, and finally she said 'I did a burp.' I should remember next time is the pre-cursor to her being sick. So up came her dinner. Joel was summoned to deal with her, the bed and everything else that goes with being sick - my stomach was not up this task. Thankfully, that seemed todo the trick for Belle, and she was her usual happy sailor self the rest of the trip. Gracie too, was surprisingly much happier and didn't seem to be feeling green as she had been. They very happily took themselves up and down the companionway stairs when it suited them. Joel and I had worked out a night schedule, I was to take over at midnight, and he would again take the helm at 3am til sunrise. What a good man!
My first night watch, I saw much of the back of the boat. I was sick every half hour for two hours, not pleasant, but then again I was glad it was getting itself sorted out....the next night I was only sick once, and the following day had started to get an appetite by the afternoon. So it takes 2 nights and 2 days for me to get my sea legs. By the last night I put the girls to sleep and even read a story! Yay.
Night watch, intially, was a daunting task for me -being in charge of the boat by myself. Granted, Joel was sleeping in the cockpit and kept waking up asking if I'd said something.... Even though the ocean is roaring beneath you, and all around, there is a somewhat peacefulness to find, a quiet time to contemplate anything you wish. The blanket of stars that encompasses the sky stretches out before you and it will soon become a favourite time I think.
Dinner each night was Joel's chance to show off his impressive culinary skills underway - I requested rice (plain boiled for me) and the other had theirs with chicken and vegetables. Not bad. The next night we wanted something fast, two minute noodles, the ones that come in their own cup (even easier!). These were a hit with the girls (especially the bendy plastic forks that come with the cups), and suited me fine, not wanting anything fancy with my previous two nights' experiences. And last night, noodles again! But Joel went all out and added some peas! Hilarious. But perfect boat food when we were crashing around in some gigantic 10 feet swells.
Now for the boating enthusiasts, I should really talk about the boat and it's achievments. It did well. We are very happy with how things went and the speed of which we got to Aruba. The tradewinds were certainly in our favour and we had a strong South East breeze the whiole way. Initially we had around 15 knots of wind,increasing to 20. Then by Saturday night and Sunday we were seeing 25 knots in stages and reduced sail, putting in 2 reefs and put up a tiny bit of jib to stablise the rocking action of the giant swell and helping the autopilot as it hunted our our course.
We did 180 miles in 24 hours on the final day - we were moving! Averaging around 160 miles a day I believe.
You might wonder what we did all day on the boat. Well for me, the first two days I pretty much did nothing. Joel did everything. From getting snacks and making lunch and dinner, putting girls to bed, then making sure we had the right amount of sail up and he even washed the sheets Isabelle was sick on. Superman! This was our first time sailing with the breeze (rather than into it), and it did make a huge difference to moving around on the boat. We could sit on both sides of the boat comfortably - and even fall asleep too with our new cockpit leecloths to hold us in. The girls enjoyed spotting flying fish, which were in abundance the first two days. They enjoy watching both sunrise and sunset - and talk about the colour the sky turns. And all the times inbetween they ate, sang songs, gave cuddles, slept (this takes 2-3 hours at the moment) and of course, watch some DVD's! We did have some play time altogether on Sunday which was nice, I was finally able to focus on a task (such as colouring) and the boat was stable enough for it.