Day 8.5: NYC-STT
Blue Note
Marco M.
Sun 13 Nov 2011 16:03
Position 21:48.41N 68:2.98W
COG 155M, SOG ~6.0 kt, Wind 120M 17 kt, Barometer 1001.4 mBar stable
Temperatures: Air 27C, Sea 25.6C
Last 24h Sailed Distance: 158NM
Sailed distance since departure: 1286NM
Time since departure: 8d 11h 50m
Average Speed since departure: 6.3 kt
Intention: sail to STT
Distance to End on rhumb line: 277NM
ETA: Tuesday 11/15/11 09:00
Detailed Track (50 is the maximum number of point, i.e. once the last point reaches 50, the last point always is 50): http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0pmBzXKinDhgKpLRvqq8VUCrbr9VSkRpL
The Mahi-Mahi was served for dinner with rise and was delicious. For Michiel was his first mahi-mahi and he liked it a lot,
however an hour later his stomach was not so sure.
We were ready for a nice peaceful night when the wind shifted to east south-east 125M at 15-20 kt. That made a bit of a rough night beating upwind on a close-hull course. We also had to abandon our rhumb line for a more west course. Waves were much smaller than we had encounter the previous days and probably only 4-6 ft, but with a close-hull course they were beating the bow and washing on deck. To make things more interesting during the night the too thin line holding down the anchor broke and replacing it, with a more sturdy one, made an interesting and very wet trip up to the bow in the middle of the night.
Hopefully the forecast will be correct and the wind will go back to be east north-east making it possible to go back on a rhumb line and on a more comfortable sailing. If not, two more not so comfortable days. The price to pay for going west, but I guess, it was a choice of the less of the two evils: a tropical storm or few days of close-hull beating into the wind. Today is also overcast, while we hear that in Holland is sunny. What's going on with the weather nowdays?
Nov. 12 Sailing on a calm sea for St. Thomas
Nov. 12 The view from the leeward side of Blue Note