Velocity made good

20 March 2017

In one straight line to Barbados was not fast enough to have enough time to spend on the island. So we changed our rigging to fully rigged. This way we try to keep our VMG (velocity made good) high enough. 
For now, we are sailing 7 knots, but we steer 30 degrees away from our destination. With a little calculation, it looks like we are getting 6 miles closer each hour to our destination (7 x cos 30 = 6,06). This is much faster than we would when we were sailing down wind. If the wind doesn’t change we should arrive in Bridgetown on the 22nd. 
Meanwhile we are getting bombed by flying fish! Even in the galley we are not safe. One flew via the hatch above the sink and landed in the dish water, as a result loud screaming coming from the galley. 
Apart from the flying fish there is not much sea life. We have seen a few birds: tropicbirds, White-faced storm petrels and today Brown boobies. But we haven’t seen any dolphins since we first saw them at the beginning of the trip, and the whales haven’t shown themselves either. But we are not there yet!