Day 1

Left Ascension at 0800 with a heavy cloud hanging over the island.  Once we were clear of the island we had blue sky and sun which continued for the rest of the day.  Winds were around 10 knots from the ESE so we made fairly slow progress during the day with Matt threatening to get the spinnaker off the back deck.  However the wind increased during the night with a few rain showers (badly needed to wash the boat) so our speed increased slightly.

We left in company with Vulcan Spirit and plan to keep in VHF/SSB contact with them throughout the trip. This morning they are 20 miles behind us.

Not a lot of wildlife about but the solar panels needed a clean this morning as 3 black noddies had decided to use them to have a rest and perform their ablutions!

On this trip we need to get north across the doldrums, and sure enough there is a huge area of very light winds to our north. The plan is to sail west to at least 25W before trying to turn NW for a “dash” through the doldrums and into the NE trades of the northern hemisphere. The winds for the first half of the trip look light, so it may be slow going!

Date and time: 17^th Feb 2016; 0800 GMT

24 hours distance:   150nm

Position: S07:39:943 W016:55:506