Trades sailing and starry nights
Associate3
Chris & Katie Russell
Wed 29 Nov 2017 16:58
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14:56.53N 29:10.92W
A fine sunny and warm day has seen us sailing in a
gentle breeze slightly south of west directly towards our goal - albeit with
some 1850 miles still to go
With the lighter breeze we have been identifying things
to make us go faster - as well as slower and we have now retired our water based
electric generator (Watt & Sea) as its seems to slow us down by up to half a
knot - a big amount over this distance and the sort of speeds we are managing
(6-6.5 knots). Following an initial worry about the amount of diesel we needed
to complete the voyage we are now happy that these winds will carry us all the
way to St Lucia will commit to more generator hours and still have a
reserve
We now have a half moon for most of the night so that
makes seeing things slightly easier but does mean that the stars are not so
defined - it does get better when the moon sets - currently about
03:30. Most of us downloaded an 'app' for star viewing before we left Las
Palmas and this has helped lively debate in the cockpit regarding which star -
or planet - is which. We have certainly learnt lots about the sky at night
so far on the voyage and are looking forward to sharing this knowledge with
anyone that might listen!
All is good on board - although we are starting to miss
certain things (as well as loved ones) - baths and gin and tonics are just
two examples with hot baths getting lots of mentions. A long way to go
yet
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