And then there was silence, and it was good.
At noon today we were at 11 04N 047 42W steering 35M, sailing under NO reefs and NO furls at 3 knots. The wind was 6G8 from the E. Our noon to noon run by the log was again 105nm. 900nm to Antigua.
Sailing gently over a calm sea
Yesterday's motoring continued into the night. Stultifying. We took the opportunity to head W towards more wind. And at 0300 there was a little more. We shutdown the engine and were under sail again. Since then we've been doing 2.5 to 3.5 knots, constantly adjusting course to keep the apparent wind on the beam. Any further aft and she stops.
One item which kept us busy for a time while motoring yesterday afternoon was the failure of our Vesper Cortex's GNSS receiver. We're on our second antenna and the warranty replacement antenna has now died. Or has it? Perhaps its the cable or the Cortex itself. It started alarming around midday yesterday and so our AIS has no position. That means can't transmit it and so we're invisible to other vessels.
In case it was the antenna we swapped back to the old one. It is mounted on the aft part of the 'goalpost'. One needs to climb outboard of the pushpit rails to get to it. In the end it was a simple task, but didn't solve the problem.
Replacing the Vesper Cortex's GNSS antenna
When the engine was finally shutdown at 0300 this morning the quiet was deafening. Since then we've enjoyed a slow, relaxing sail in partly-sunny conditions. Most cruisers would struggle to make 3 knots downwind in these light breezes, but Zen Again manages it even with her 1st reef sized mainsail.
The weather outlook shows the breeze increasing steadily overnight and tomorrow. Looking forward to increasing our noon-to-noon runs!
Trust all's well where you are.
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