At noon today we were at 12 35N 067 13W sailing 235T at 5.0 knots on a broad reach under double-reefed main and storm staysail. The wind is ESE 13G18. The seas are about 1.3m. The air temperature is 29C, water 31C and overhead are scattered small cumulus clouds. Our noon to noon run was 120nm. We have about 80nm to go. Just a Fremantle-Bunbury!
Dawn Today
Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed a great sail in SE winds of 10G15 knots. It reminded us of our South Atlantic crossing which was several weeks of champagne sailing like this.
In the evening we did our daily SSB 'Escapee Net' with Cerulean, Escapade of London and Tokimata. Occasionally others join too. Conditioins are far from ideal due to the lightning which is very common along the north coast of South America, especially in the evenings.
As the evening wore on the wind increased, gusting to 20 knots. Not much you say - correctly - but Zen Again was striding away at 6 knots and that would have us arriving at 0200 local time tonight. So we furled the yankee and set the storm staysail to slow her down a little.
Last night was spectacular with a clear sky and a waxing nearly-half moon. We were chasing the 'staircase to the moon' on the water. When the moon set we had an amazing starscape to watch, with several planets and occasional shooting stars.
Overnight we again ran the SailingGen hydrogenerator. Practically no sargaso weed snarling it on this passage. At 5 knots boatspeed we get 3-5A of current which pretty-much balances out our consumption. The Lifeline LiFePo4 batteries and solar chargers are performing well too. The minimum level the batteries have reached on the passage so far has been 75%. That was while not using the hydrogenerator since we were sailing so slow!
We're running Starlink for an hour or two each day. It failed to go online the first time we tried it, about 25nm W of Grenada. That was in very cloudy skies and may have been locked-out due to our location. Since then it has gone online every time, announcing that its position has changed. Perhaps the territorial waters limit doesn't apply off countries they don't intend to support (Cuba, Venezuela etc). And we've seen no interruptions while in motion. The motion threshold appears to be higher than we usually manage!
Well Reefed Down
This morning the champagne sailing continued, albeit with a few splashes on deck as the seas built to about 1.5m. The wind is supposed to decrease this afternoon and overnight which will help ensure we arrive in daylight.
Trust all's well where you are!
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