Blog 25. At sea. 07.54.35S 115.23.11W

Alcedo
David Batten
Fri 11 Mar 2016 21:03
Friday, 11 March. Today is a celebration day, because we have definitely passed the half way mark. The last Yellow Brick position showed 1480 miles to go and the Garmin is now on 1406 miles to go. We are just in the middle of a communication experiment engineered by Johan on Aliena to see if we can establish an SSB frequency that most of the fleet can hear. So far, the SSB is still producing little other than an annoying crackle, but we can just hear a voice on 8297.0 coming out of the ether. Other than the fact it is a male voice, we are non the wiser, so we may have to continue the rest of our journey in radio isolation.

All the crew have had mixed watches with some exhilarating sailing that got us used to the idea of 8 to 9 knots with the occasional 10 knots in the right direction, but over the last 24 hours, progress has been really slow and frustrating. The seas are too big for the wind, the wind is infinitely variable, from SE to E, mostly 11 to 15 knots which is not quite enough for our sail wardrobe and we are often having to steer South of our course, so we are having to lower our expectations and extend our arrival date. We may end up goose-winged if the wind ever settles. We are still seeing a surprising number of birds, but nothing else.

The Lunch Time Cook, Jane, is producing a special lunch today and we are looking forward to Caipirinhas tonight. The Cooks are both doing a fantastic job and we are eating very delicious and healthy meals thanks to Jane and the Ship's Boy.

News from England has also been mixed, with unsettling news about David's mother, who has clearly not been well, but good news from Emma K-H who has just been appointed to the position of her choice in London. It has clearly been wet, wet, wet in England and Aldon will be full because of other events being cancelled. Maybe the Pacific is a good place to be whatever the wind!

Alcedo



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