Cape Verdes Outbound Day 4

Hi everyone,
At noon today we were at 14 12N 032 02W steering 230M, sailing under 2 reefs and no furls at 5 knots.  The wind was 12G16 from the ENE.  Our noon to noon run by the log was 117nm.

A Dusty Day at the Office

We gybed SW mid-afternoon yesterday.  As you can see from our track we're zigzagging WSW in the hope of staying in wind.  The Saharan dust haze continued with about 1nm visibility.  Overnight the haze seemed to slowly diminish.  By dawn the visibility was up to 2nm and by noon was better still.  Certainly not entirely gone yet.

We've now seen a couple of tropic birds.  They're beautiful birds and seeing them indicates you really are in the tropics.  We're also seeing quite a few small shearwaters and flying fish.  And we've started to see small clumps of Sargaso weed.  On our previous E-W North Atlantic crossing the weed was terrible, forming balls around the propellor and leading to gooseneck barnacles all over the hull.  Hope it's not as bad this time!

We've finished our shop-bought bread now, and our first pre-departure baked fruit cake.  Next we have a ginger cake to see us through to the Christmas Cake.  Looking forward to that!  If conditions permit Nic may well bake some of her awesome bread rolls.

Planning for our haul out in Sint Maartin is proceeding well.  We've booked with a recommended yard and found a shipwright to do our thru-hulls.  Just looking for a mechanic to do our cutlass bearing and shaft seal.

Trust all's well where you are.