Saturday 3rd June

Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Sat 3 Jun 2017 15:01
40:51.7N, 023:13.4W

We motored for about 24 hours, but are now bowling along nicely on a broad reach doing about 5 knots. The yankee is boomed out to weather some of the time, depending on wind shifts. The weather is fine and the barometer high so it’s really rather pleasant. So much so that yesterday lunchtime we went for a swim round the boat, carefully avoiding the Portuguese men-o’-war.

We have been visited by whales, rather too close for comfort. Sperm whales, or maybe only one who keeps returning between dives, but they are about 20m long and pay scant respect to the boat but blow noisily for about 5 minutes while swimming a boat length or two away before diving again, leaving smelly residue. The phosphorescence is growing brighter as we come north and the water gets colder and the fishing lure out but no catch so far.

We hope to try a short-wave contact again tonight at 21:00 UTC.