Traditions to Enjoy

1605 AST, June 1, 11. After provisioning and cleaning, routine maintenance, cooking and stowing, and after all the little things to check and the various tasks to be done both on and below decks, after watching the weather, making phone calls and sending emails, after all this is done, LA is ready for sea. But we do not leave. Instead we follow Larking About's tradition and take a day to relax, and enjoy everything being shipshape and ready. This time our relaxation started yesterday at noon with a lovely little sail around from Bahia Almodovar to Luis Pena, where we anchored in the sand road laying down our chain carefully to avoid the coral, and then we enjoyed a superb snorkel, the highlight of which was a large friendly angel fish that was spectacularly outlined in purple and yellow. Today we had a leisurely breakfast, and put up the lee cloths to keep us tight in our bunks; then we had a last swim and at 8.32 we were off on a beam reach on a 12 kts E breeze. We have done 45 miles on the log in our first 7 hours, under full sail. We have some lighter winds forecast on our way to Bermuda, and we expect to be motoring some. But for now we have a glorious sail with just a four foot swell. In a couple of hours we will celebrate another tradition: we will eat coq au vin for our first offshore dinner. It's tasty but not too spicy, and it's easily digested - even though there will be no wine to help it down: by another tradition LA is dry offshore, but gets quite wet fairly quickly upon arrival. Best to all, Nancy, John and Bro' Jim
1854N 6537W Partly sunny, winds E 12, seas 4 feet, average speed 6.4 knots. Course 005m, heading west of the rhum line to try and keep some wind in the coming days.