We are currently in position 25 50N 064 50W, saillng at 6 knots on a course of 030M. The wind is SE at 20-24 knots with a 1.5m sea and 1.5m SSE swell. We are sailing under double-reefed main and single-furled yankee. Scattered small cumulus with broken high cloud above. Our day's run was 148nm, our DMG was 144m and we have 392nm to go. We're past the half-way mark so are now inbound!
Yesterday afternoon in the Sargasso Sea
Winds gradually increased yesterday afternoon and in the evening they swung from E to SE. We put the second reef in to allow us to sail deeper as the wind moved aft. The high clouds disappeared during the night, leaving us with a nice starry sky. Saw a few shooting stars and several colourful blinking ones (aircraft!).
This morning we changed from Kami (the Raymarine autopilot with Pelagic ram) to Kazi (the Aries vane gear). The new ram has been performing well but I wanted to try out Kazi in these broad reaching conditions. They're somewhere between the benign of the South Atlantic and the nasty of the Southern Indian Ocean. Kazi would constantly threaten to gybe us in the latter but seems to be coping OK in today's conditions.
This morning I tuned in to the SSB net being used by yachts sailing "up the middle" of the Atlantic - from Ascension to the Cape Verdes and/or the Azores. Amazingly I could make out sv Tuuletar's position report. Mark has a very good radio. The range was 2000nm.
The temperature is slowly but surely decreasing. Water temperature is 26C and air temperature outside is the same. We're wearing long sleaves at night!
No comments:
Post a Comment