Day 6

One of those days where the wind direction was ‘neither nowt nor summat’ - not quite right for a 2 sail reach and not quite right for goose-winged.  Consequently we sailed very much on the edge goose winged, with the occasional big flap as the autohelm lurched around in the swells. So a bit more rolly, but generally not bad at all.

We are approaching the Island of Fernando de Noronho about 185nm off the corner of Brazil which is located in the doldrums region (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) where there is lots of rain, convection, wind shifts etc. Sure enough in the night we had rain, rain and more rain together with various wind shifts and no wind so we had to run the engine for a couple of hours to keep going.  Back to goose-winged at the moment but the sky is still looking a bit black – might be a trying day.

Lots of teenie flying fish washed up on deck and a couple of boobies flying round the boat again yesterday – we think they are after the flying fish that are disturbed by the boat.  Would like to see one catching a flying fish mid-air.

Date and time: 22nd Feb 2016; 0800 GMT

24 hours distance:   180nm

Position: S05:32:97 W031:56:08