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Atlantic Crossing

On December 1st, we saw a freighter on the horizon, heading for us. So
much so that we slightly modified our route to go further away: but they
also altered their route towards us! They ended up passing very close to
us, the whole crew at the rail watching us. The boat’s name was Mini Star,
it was all rusty, and we could not figure out what type of boat it was.

Our friends on Corossol were 150 miles further south and were not moving
much faster than us, stuck in weak winds.

2.1- On the 19th parallel
The grib files finally started to show us more sustained winds, expected
Monday evening at the latest, but discouraged us from continuing further
South, and we finally headed West, after having dropped the Parasail. The
wind went up to 10-12 knots, our speed and our morale increased as well,
especially as a route to the west had significantly improved our progress
towards the goal. We began to notice gusts when clouds were passing
over us, roughly in the same direction as us. The sea was beginning to
build and get a little rough. Christine got to prepare the documents for the
authorities of Saint Lucia and fell on the following question: "How many
dead do you have on board?"

We move on to a fresh meal at noon, and dehydrated in the evening, Gil-
bert becoming the preparation attendant of these dishes which is less sim-
ple than you might imagine. On December 2nd, the sea was still rough, and
the wind finally settled at 7 a.m. It was only 14 knots, but it was much
better than before. In addition, the grib files soon announced the long-
awaited 20 knot winds. Seamanpro was still promising us an arrival on De-
cember 20 in the morning.
We had to recharge the small fresh water tank, but this time the water-
maker refused to produce a single drop. I managed to put it back into ser-
vice after having purged the air which was in the water inlet pipes and hav-
ing tightened all the clamps. But the joy was short-lived, it stopped produc-
ing after 1/2 hour. We were sailing with the jib poled in the wind. ARC
management reported the dismasting of two mini-transat race sailboats,
which were now drifting across the route to the West Indies. Their bea-

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