St Helena Northwards - Day Three 11 27.796S 010 29.016W

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sun 6 Apr 2014 17:38
Light to very light winds have continued and we've been sailing at as little as 2 to 3kts some of the time. Most of the time it's been all of 4kts, and in comparison that now feels like we're racing along! So progress is a lot slower, with the noon-to-noon run being only 106 miles. The forecast is for light winds to continue for several days. It's too early to consider using the engine as we may not stop at Ascension and would then have a long way to go, so need to conserve fuel and just have to accept that it will take longer. But apart from the lack of wind, we do have almost perfect conditions - blue skies with just a few white puffy clouds, very little sea and it's a beautiful colour. And it's nice and hot! Yes, the official verdict of all onboard is that it's now hot! It's taken until being 11 degrees off the Equator! It reaches about 30 degrees during the day and doesn't fall below 25 at night. So no foul weather gear, even at night. That's so much better! There was another relatively clear night last night to study the stars and during the night the RMS St. Helena came close (within 5 miles) as it steamed back from Ascension Island to St Helena. When it anchored off St Helena while we were there it unloaded 45 containers (each one bought ashore on a one-container sized barge) and by the time it gets back there tomorrow (Monday) it will pick up the empty containers and head back to Cape Town.

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