Location: 30° 31N, 64° 13W
Tuesday, 04.29.2008

The Schooner Maggie B was at 30° 31N, 64° 13W at noon on April 29th. We were finally under all plain sail with The Bird, our G2 gennaker up, making 6.2 knots in a 10-12 knot SW’erly, straight for St. Georges. We have 113 NM to go to Bermuda and have come 833 from Antigua. It looks as if we will arrive, assuming that the wind freshens a bit, on schedule a little after dawn on the 30th. That should get us nicely tucked into Captain Smokes Marina in St. Georges Harbour before the cold front arrives with fresher winds.

We are now at that perfect point of sailing with the wind about on our beam, with just long swell and no wave chop. It is a relief to have the engine off. The big prop is stopped with a short lasso in the engine room. It is still like towing a bucket, but Maggie seems so happy to be under sail, she is not complaining.
I neglected to mention yesterday that Curtis had caught a marvelous large Mahi Mahi after a bit of a struggle. It is the biggest fish we have landed on the Maggie B. How big? Curtis is 6′ 3″ and it came up to his shoulder (photos soon up on the web). We should get six meals for five out of it. It was delicious in garlic and butter, flash fried in a hot pan and even more so the next day in a thick fish soup concocted by Rik.

Last night, or actually this morning, Curtis and I did our star sights once the moon rose enough to give us a satisfactory horizon. We use a fine program called StarPilotPC to do the math. We shot the moon, Jupiter and Arcturus and were delighted that of six observations, none were more than 7 NM from our actual GPS position. We might even be able to find Bermuda without GPS!

Bermuda tomorrow!

All is well.