Whinge for the day!

Fleck
Fri 17 May 2013 13:48
Friday, May 17th 2013
 
Position  7:13.8S 33:37.2W
 
Real mixed bag of weather as we make our 'final approach' to S America. The sea is very lumpy, and a little squall comes through every hour or so. The wind has also been quite variable in strength and direction. In my brain I will always associate this weather with this stretch of coast, but this may of course by quite atypical. Poor visibility in the night made 'battleships' a more difficult game, and the AIS added to the interest by sometimes dropping a plot off its screen for no reason that I can discern. How quickly you come to depend on a piece of kit that you have managed to do quite well without for years! Back to fixes on lights with the hand bearing compass, but it reminds me of the days when I used to do running fixes on the West Country headlands as we sailed passed them. Such was my inaccuracy in the rolling Channel chop, that we seemed to be on a colision course with most of them for most of the time. Tonight there are likely to be fishing boats as well, so all in all I will be relieved to make harbour tomorrow morning. A couple of days spent checking in and then out again will give the wind a chance to get back to the SE, which is what I need to send me the next 100 miles round the 'top corner' of Brazil, and onto the very long NE coast. Can't type any more, as a little migraine has come on, and I can't see the screen properly: Lights on the horizon should be no problem then!!