An Exciting Interlude
The Adventures of Allegria & Crew
Peter Lansdale
Sat 1 Jun 2024 13:20
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33:47.3N 053:18.4W
Well the exciting interlude was quite low
grade but that is the nature of excitement out here, unless it's excitement
caused by panic because some important system like the mainsail won't work. But
it was a ship, and we haven't seen many of those. It first appeared on our AIS
(automatic identification system) when it was more than 20 miles away and was
showing a CPA (closest point of approach) of less that half a mile ie a
collision course! Also at this point it is more that 2 hours away - plenty of
time to worry. Anyway at about 10 miles away I'm sure it altered course by about
5 degrees as the CPA moved out to over 2 miles. That might be rather fanciful
given the vagaries of an electronic calculation on an object that is bouncing
about like we are, but it's nice to believe in the diligence of others. It
passed ahead of us by about 3 miles in the end.
Today has opened bright and
blue, the weather might almost be getting boring. About a 15 knot wind which has
moved more behind us but we are making 6 to 8 knots directly towards the Azores
and so ETA is about 8 days as long as some stronger winds materialise. 1200
miles to go. Clouds have moved in now but there is no sign of rain and we are
all still in shorts and T shirts. It's been a pretty marvellous passage so far.
They don't get much better. We are even sailing nearly upright now which
is a big relief. Peter
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