Ascension Northwards - Day Sixteen 07 23.386N 045 11.159W

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 29 Apr 2014 17:16
A bit of a slow night. The wind dropped and our speed with it, down to around 4kts. A counter current of around half a knot the whole time hasn't helped and the noon-to-noon run was only 132 miles. However, the wind's come back this morning and we now have 3 sails out, having poled the outer genoa out to windward. All 3 are well reefed, but together they're pushing and pulling her along nicely, albeit in a bit of a lumpy sea. But the sun is shining and it's a lovely day. Two reasons to celebrate today. Early this morning we passed the 2,000 mile mark from Ascension, and this afternoon we passed the '1,000 miles to go' mark and as I write we have 995 miles to go.

On passing the Amazon delta we wondered whether there would be any colouration of the water. Having passed it now, we saw no sign of any, but then we are several hundred miles out. Our original course from FdN (had we stopped) would have taken us a lot closer.

Almost saw our first ship today! A small cargo boat heading for Norway of all places. However, it stayed on the other side of the horizon and we just watched it on AIS. 17 days is our record for being at sea without seeing anything, so we're getting close to that.

For those that are dying to know - yes, the bread did taste as good as it looked. More will have to be baked!

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