At noon today we are at 17 43N 031 21W sailing at 6 knots on a broad reach under double-reefed main and single-furled yankee. The wind is NE 14G19. The seas are 1.5m with a long 2.5m N swell. The air temperature is 23C, water 25C and above are few small Cu. Our noon to noon daily run was 104nm. We have 1743nm to go. A few minutes ago we gybed W after a 10 hour broad reach S.
Tradewind Smile
Yesterday afternoon we continued W with 10-15 knots of wind from the NE. It was very nice sailing but we knew from the weather GRIB files that we were on the edge of the trade winds. In the evening the wind held in but larger Cu clouds were becoming more frequent.
Last night's SSB sked included Tuuletar (1300nm W), Lady of Lorien (360nm WSW) and Ruffian (Gamber River). There was quite a lot of noise on 4146 so we tried 6227 and 8294, both of which were worse. We managed to exchange positions and news on 4146. We also managed to make contact with ReVision II via Iridium Go! phone, SMS and email. They're about 250nm ENE.
At 0100 the wind died. After struggling along for a while we started the engine. A few minutes later a light wind came in from the ESE. We gybed and motor-sailed SW. An hour later the ESE wind had strengthened and the engine was turned off. For an hour or so we had two reefs in the main.
At dawn we were heading S as the wind had slowly backed around to the NE. We stood on to get deeper into the trades where there are predicted to be stronger winds. We knew we'd have to duck S later in the week to avoid calms so it was good to make a start now.
The moon was bright again last night. The highlight however was spotting the Southern Cross constellation in the pre-dawn southern sky. We've not seen the Southern Cross for 5 years (apart from while on our one holiday home). Great to see it.
Trust all's well where you are.
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