Canaries Outbound Day 5

Hi everyone,
At noon today we are at 22 32N 024 22W sailing at 4 knots on a broad reach under full main and single-furled yankee.  The wind is NNE 8G12.  The seas are slight with a long 1m swell. The air temperature is 21C, water 24C and we have a few Cu clouds above.  Our noon to noon daily run was 103nm.  We have 2273nm to go.  Slow going again today.

Mid-afternoon yesterday a new NNE wind came in and piped up enough for us to put the first reef in the main.  It eventually settled to 12G16 and we left the reef in overnight as bands of cloud came over at intervals.  By dawn we even had a few drops of rain but no more wind.

PredictWind routes from current position to NW of the Cape Verdes

(showing current wind prediction)

This morning the clouds have broken up and we have a nice sunny sky.  The full main is back up.  We expect the wind to veer around towards the ENE later today, when we'll gybe south.  The hope is that we'll have the apparent wind on the beam as we head SSW in light winds.  The light winds are expected to last until Saturday when we should reach the trades.

We had another good SSB sked last night with Lady of Lorien and Tuuletar taking part.  Lady of Lorien is still about 330nm ahead of us, so we seem to be keeping up at present.  Tuuletar is about 820nm ahead and may arrive in Barbados in time for Christmas.  From PredictWind GPS Tracking we know FSC yacht ReVision II is about 230nm behind us, slowly dropping back in the light airs.

We've been running 3 hour watches so far.  We're talking about extending to 4 hours soon as we're now well 'into the groove'.  And we might throw in a couple of 2 hour dog watches to alternate our watches each day.

I spent a while this morning sorting out our accumulated rubbish.  Anything organic goes over the side.  Everything else gets crushed or cut up to compact it.  When crossing oceans previously we've had empty 3 litre plastic milk containers into which we'd stow rubbish.  Amazing how much can be jammed in once cut up.  Sadly we don't have them this time so the rubbish is less compacted in rubbish bags.  Crushing and cutting up certainly makes a difference.

During this benign weather we're also airing out the cockpit lockers.  They not perfectly sealed and our exciting escape from the Canaries let a little water in.

The benign weather also allows a more thorough on deck inspection of the mast, boom, rig, deck fittings and running rigging.  All in good shape and no flying fish or squid on the foredeck!  The entire deck is well coated in salt of course.

Trust all's well where you are.