19 December 2009

One day down and we made fast progress up until dawn break this morning. We had a change of course from west to south west following the curve of the Colombian. For a stretch of water notorious for howling gales and big seas we'd picked one of the few days this year when there wasn't any wind. It was like the Bay of Biscay had become as menacing as t village pond. No wind and flat seas were ahead of us through the daylight hours so we turned the key and engaged the iron sail calculating that with engine and the fast first half we'd arrive in Cartagena 20 hours ahead of our estimate.