However, you could tell everyone wanted to get on with it! We were all ready and now was the time to go! The plan was for the boats to parade past the masses at Sails for a nice big send off. First, we had to get out of our box mooring. 27ft wide, with a 24ft cat meant it was tight, but we managed it unaided. We soon had fenders stowed, lifelines re-attached and were ready to go.
N'oubliez Jamais went first, and then we passed by to have our photo taken and wave to everyone. We then headed off towards the Bocos and caught up with Jean as she turned into Scotland bay for a quick swim and some sleep. We decided to press on as we had a plan.
The plan was to hug the coast out of the current until the moon came up, by which time we'd be along the flatter section of the coast where there was no respite. The moon would help as it rose though, but calming the current a little bit. It worked very nicely, and we reached the NE corner of Trinidad by 1am, about an hour ahead of schedule.
At this point, we raised sails. Others sailed all the way to the point (or as far as they could before the winds dropped completely) - very well done. All that tacking wasn't for us though - you can take the boy out of a motorboat, but you can't take the motorboater out of the boy :)
The wind has been extremely co-operative so far. We're making great progress, banking some East now in case the wind swings south. We're sailing pretty nicely, around 6-7knots in an Easterly 4, which is forecast to continue for the next few days.
In fact, if it does continue, we may have a problem with arriving too early! We want to get about 20nautical miles up the river to find a spot to anchor and get some proper rest. We'd like to go up with the tide and definitely with daylight. This probably means we can't make Saturday afternoon, and we're looking at Sunday morning.
Its very early days yet though! The wind could play all sorts of games before then! Still, very happy with progress so far.
We managed to speak to some of the fleet at 7pm last night, but this morning I think we're too spread out. I spoke to Piano by SSB and they had just reached the NE tip, so around 40nm behind us - which explains why I couldn't raise them on VHF...
The only worrying news is Della Myra has been delayed by some incident. We hope its nothing serious as we get on very well with Joe and would like to see him make Guyana on his 3rd attempt!