Friday 18th May

I’m currently writing this whilst sitting at the back of the good ship Garmin, with the sun going down behind me (boat time 5pm) watching occasional turtles swim past us through the flat sea. There’s hardly any wind, and we are under tow from the Great Britain boat (we’ll be swapping over to tow them in the morning, so that we can all make it to the refuelling port in Costa Rica in a few days without running out).

We just stopped off for 20 minutes for a quick swim around the boat. Swimming in 4100 metres of ocean depth, 150 miles off the coast of Mexico is pretty special. (As is this whole year long adventure, really.) Although had we stopped to look at the huge number of tiny jellyfish, sea snakes and other translucent wildlife in the sea, we might not have gone in. I think most of us have one or two minor stings.

Race 10 was called early at the second mandatory gate due to the ITCZ (the doldrums) expanding and moving north, giving us an expected diddley squat of wind for the next few days. We managed to pull fourth place out of the light winds lottery near the end; all quite happy with that after being 8th and 9th most of the race. Now for a long, dull 1,200 mile motor through probably no wind and flat seas…

Sunday 20th May

The weather files are currently showing an impressively large windhole just where we are, for the next 5 days or so. The sea is still flat as a pancake, with occasional wildlife such as dolphins, turtles, rays and lots of birds, and we are still motoring slowly towards the refuelling stop in Costa Rica. The relentless sun (except for the occasional cumulonimbus) is giving us all cabin fever…

Hoping for at least some wind soon so that we can sail some of the way and save fuel.

Wednesday 23rd May

Costa Rica! Since Puerto Culebra is not a port of entry we’re not allowed to leave the boat, but we shouldn’t be here too long – just enough for a refuel and then off again to Panama!