Back to Europe - 2
Gins.pt
Mon 10 May 2010 12:00
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On Saturday the easterly winds
continued to be light, between 8 and 12 knots
and we made 6 to 7 miles per hour. In the
afternoon the wind decreased to 5 to 8 knots and at midnight it was less than 5
knots.
Igor struggled to get the boat moving
and could make only 2 - 3 miles in an hour. We studied again the
weather forecasts and the weather maps and saw this low wind area
stretching over 100 miles in front of us. The decision was made to turn the
motor on and continue in the
"economy mode" at the speed of 6,5knots. Now
it is Monday morning and we are still motoring, expecting the cold front to
reach us. During last night we saw a lot of very distant lightning on the
northwest.The wind has turned to SW and is now at 4-6 knots, still not enough to
enable enjoyable sailing.
The weather is nice all the time with a few
scattered clouds. It is no longer hot and the night watch is in jeans and
fleece. The water temperature dropped below 24 degrees from 28 in the
BVI's.
The ocean is full of algae swimming on the
surface and it is impossible to use the trolling gear. So no sushi to be served
this week or delicious raw tuna salad like the one Stephanie
made in St. Barth. The ocean looks like a big blue blanket with many light
green patches in sizes from 0.5m to several tens of meters.
Yesterday menues were light. Igor was serving Greek
salad for lunch and zucchini on butter with beef francs for dinner. The starter
was fresh mango.
During the night we produced 900 liters of water.
The 2 diesels and the high pressure pump from the watermaker were making
quite a few decibels of noise. Despite that the sleeping intervals
were fully used.
Hoping to reach the wind zone soon and stop the
engine...
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