Trade Winds

Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Wed 10 Feb 2010 17:45
Hello Friends                    "9:23.4N 89:04.8W"
 
Another good day's passage has been enjoyed.
 
I've had time to process the swimming pic from yesterday... they do look keen to keep up with Blue Sky...
 
 
The green line in the water is for the towgen but equally good for hanging on to.
 
The wind forecast yesterday was pretty good - a little light in the night for an hour or two then kicking off nicely with 15 knots from the starboard quarter (north east to you). We've been bowling along well at good speeds and even have a knot of current in our favour at the moment - which is nice as that's why we planned to keep north.
 
We've seen more turtles - 2 together this morning - and lots of dolphins in the night and again this morning.
 
We think the turtles may be Olive Ridley turtles - you've got google and here's a pic...
 
 
We also (or at least the skipper) saw a whale this morning - I just saw the back which was big, grey and broad. I'd guess that the whale was a similar size to Blue Sky and it was only two boat lengths away on the port bow - probably just come to take a look at us. Only a single sighting, so no more details.
 
As we settle down to ocean life we're getting used to the watches and falling into a comfortable rhythm. The watches are 3 hours at night and 4 in daytime as George is the cook. So:
 
0000-0300    Simon
0300-0600    Alex
0600-1000    Michael
1000-1400    Simon
1400-1800    Alex
1800-2100    Michael
2100-0000    George
 
Astute blog readers will notice that Michael has quite a good deal out of this, but since he was very sleep deprived in the Atlantic, it's important that the skip. can still function well. This seems to be working, as Michael had 8 hours sleep last night and it took Alex five minutes to wake him for advice in the night.
 
George must be feeling good too as he was sufficiently chipper this morning to treat us to pancakes. The Blue Sky pancake buffet...
 
 
All well as we continue west.
 
Best Wishes
 
George, Michael, Alex and Simon