At noon today we are at 18 45N 028 13W motoring at 4.5 knots. The wind is E 3G5. The seas are calm with a long 1m swell. The air temperature is 21C, water 25C and the sky is overcast. Our noon to noon daily run was 110nm. We have 1979nm to go. Interesting that we're in the North Atlantic's hurricane 'breeding ground'. Happily it's not breeding season!
Cloudy skies this morning
Yesterday afternoon we had champagne sailing conditions. Slight sea, sunny sky and a 10 knot breeze on the beam. We saw a number of flying fish and several sea birds.
By late afternoon the wind was dying rapidly and rain clouds were all around. Ever since our departure we'd expected Friday/Saturday to bring calms and so it proved. At 1730 the engine went on and the yankee was furled away. We've been motoring since then. The wind hasn't exceeded 4 knots and mostly 2-3 knots. The batteries are well and truly charged.
The SSB sked last night featured Tuuletar (range 1250nm) and Lady of Lorien (range 350nm). Very happy with the performance we're getting from all three radios.
At midnight we were visited by a pod of dolphins. Otherwise it was a steady drone SW under an overcast sky. Even so the nearly full moon gave some light despite being invisible itself.
Yesterday I mentioned how much water we used in week 1. We have no watermaker so have to be very careful on longer passages. Fresh water is used for drinking, cooking and washing. That's washing ourselves - dish washing uses sea water with a fresh water rinse from a spray bottle. We each get 1 litre every three days for washing. After three days a wash feels _really_ good! When we get into consistently warm weather we'll probably start having salt water showers using a bucket. Once washed we use the litre of fresh water to rinse off.
This morning we had a heavy rain shower. I should have rigged the empty water jerry can to our water collector. The water collector is canvas fitted under the goal post (stern arch) with drain fittings. Hoses take the water down into jerry cans. We don't need additional water but collecting some at sea would have been a first.
Here's hoping the NE Trades come in soon!
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