Sunday 21st February: maybe in the tades again
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Sun 21 Feb 2016 17:58
Last night the wind fell light and it rained pretty steadily from about 8pm
until about 7am this morning so we motored along at 4 knots or so having an
uneventful night. Just before dawn (which is around 6am here, 8am UK time) a
very fuzzy moon was visible as well as a very faint and fuzzy horizon so
James grabbed a sextant sight as an experiment to see how (in-)accurate such
a sight can be. About 15 miles out which is ok really under the circs.
Normally a sun sight in good weather should be within about 1.5 miles.
Gradually through the morning and early afternoon the wind steadied and is
now from the expected SSE at the expected strength and we are bowling along
nicely on course on a reach at around 7 knots. The sky is beginning to clear
and there is blue ahead with fluffy clouds rather than grey sheet and rain.
Just maybe we are back into the trades at last. It remains very hot in the
cabin and since it's been shut up on account of the rain is rather humid and
airless as well making sleeping difficult so we are both a bit tired and
crotchety. Classic doldrums stuff!
Fiona has had a sort out of the vegetables which are mostly ok but getting
tired. The last cucumber was the only thing we actually chucked out but
we've been chopping up green peppers so they get used before too mouldy. The
green bananas are now nice and yellow with black spots and perfect so we are
eating quite a few as well as there are about a dozen left and they are
unlikely to last another week. The butternut squash however is as fresh as
the day we shipped it so that's our supper.
Fiona's comments on boat life. It's so nice to see clearer
skies ahead and not the lowering dark threatening masses of the ITCZ that
our respective moods can only improve with the visibility.