Fighting for territory
Fleck
Tue 27 May 2014 17:15
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Tuesday, 27th May, 2014, 11.43 local time,
17.43 GMT daylight time.
Position 28:13N 63:14W. That's about 260 miles
south of Bermuda.
I've started my history of the origins of WW1, I
hope that it does not prove too unreadable: one fact per page or less suits my
brain just fine these days. However it serves to illustrate that there seems to
be a battle of sorts right here as different weather systems fight
over ownership of this corner of the Sargasso Sea (and am I now in the fabled
Bermuda triangle?) Today I am in an easterly airstream, yesterday westerly,
tomorrow perhaps, westerly again. And at each front battle certainly rages:
cannon fire and thick smoke, well thunder squalls at any rate, mark our
transition from one occupying power to another. There is much to be done: the
squalls bring wind, sometimes lots, sometimes not much, but I reef down anyway.
Afterwards it is calm for a few hours, but uncomfortable as the seas whipped up
by the squall toss us about. It is usually best to motor a bit, as the forward
momentum seems to stablise the boat (?like riding a bike? I've forgotten
all my physics!). My masthead wind sensor is on the blink, I think
water gets in with each squall, so it is wildly inaccurate, just at a time
when the wind strength and direction, which in settled conditions becomes quite
intuitive, would actually be quite helpful. If we get many more showers it
wiill be permanently damaged, but I'm not going back up that darned mast at sea
unless my life really does depend on it ever again!
So progress is rather slow, and after a really
brisk start we are down to 80 odd miles per day. Tomorrow it looks particularly
quiet on the gribs, and thus probably squally all over. Vicky is getting these
blogs: she has offered to send me her hi tech weather info, But I have really no
idea just how much data my system can handle, or what the consequences of an
overload would be. I do know that we users are told repaetedly to warn
correspondents against sending attachments.
Anyway if it gets really miserable I can motor to
Bermuda from here, leaving a not very green and rather expensive footprint in my
wake of course!
Geoff Fisher writes to tell my of the latest sailing disasters around the
North Atlantic, he is so encouraging... Anyway Geoff, about the most unlikely
thing to drop off this boat is the keel, given the overall design and
construction, unless maybe we get a direct hit from one of these
wretched cannons!
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