Day 10 to Barbados

This morning we have 460 mm left to Barbados. Depending on the winds in the next few days we hope to arrive Tues or Wed. No Regrets should get in today, and Tahawas tomorrow.

Yesterday we flew the spinnaker, but had to take it down at 11 pm. Fun! Things are going fine except some issues with the autopilot. It's not holding a steady course so one of us has to stay at the helm monitoring it. Rob changed the circuit board yesterday and has a few other things to try today. No problem ,though, except no reading time.

We have started to do some reading about Barbados. It is much more British than the other Caribbean islands. The colonial ships could not make the eastward passage to windward from the other islands, so the French and English didn't fight over it. Most cruisers stopping would be finishing an Atlantic crossing. Until just recently there was not a marina there, and the anchorage is poor. A new marina was built for their 50th anniversary of independence. That will be our home for at least a week. Jimmy Cornell has organized a Caribbean Odyssey, a rally that left the Canary Islands on Jan. 10. Their trip should be about 3 weeks. We look forward to meeting some of them.