Heading (roughly) for the Azores
Amoret
Sun 26 Apr 2009 13:43
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We (Eric, Brian and Tony) left Mindelo in Cape
Verde on Thursday morning along with a couple of German single-handed boats
heading in the same direction. We overtook the monohull on day 1 and the cat
opted to go the long way SW of Santo Antao rather than to windward up the
channel between the two islands.
As expected, we can't quite lay the course in the
prevailing NE wind and westgoing current, but are falling about 15 degrees to
the west which isn't too bad, and are averaging our 5 Kt (ie around 120 M/day).
Initially the wind was Force 3/4 but is now 5/6, so we have a triple-reefed
main, a bit of genoa and a blade staysail. Monica (our windvane self-steering
gear) is doing a great job and we are all well and eating though also hot and
wet thanks to the 4m swell.
Wildlife notes: the main excitements have been a
pod of about a dozen short-finned pilot whales as we were leaving Cape Verde and
several red-billed tropic birds (gorgeous mainly white birds, looking a bit like
oversized terns but with a long, thin tail streamer about as long as
the body).
Shipping is sparse - one freighter each on Thu
and Fri nights.
I guess that we are now around a quarter of the way
provided that we get wind shifts that allow us to lay the
Azores.
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