ARC Europe - Leg 3: Ponta Delgado - Eastbourne
Gins.pt
Wed 16 Jun 2010 06:14
We were ready for the start on June 12 at noon.
Everything was working except one electric winch for the main sheet
which we are using with a handle as on the smaller
boats. The start was OK and we had variable wind along the island
of San Miguel. We started the motor from time to
time to cross the lulls.. in the following 3 days we were sailing
about 30 hours, rest was motoring. The
weather situation is extremely unconfortable. We can choose between no
wind
or stronger winds from NE where we want to
sail. Sailing against the wind and waves for 1000 miles distance means at
least 1500 miles of way. We decided to use the
motor and carefully calculated the fuel. We are cruising at 6 knots
using
4.5 liters of fuel per hour. Somewhere on the way
we need to sail for about 300 miles and this way we can reach
Falmouth
Harbour on Cornwall (UK) We estimate to arrive
there next Tuesday. After the customs and immigration formalities and
refuelling we shall continue 220 nm to the
Sovereign Harbour Marina in Eastbourne near Brighton, where GIN'S will rest
till end of July.
The Azorean high offers some sunshine, but the
nights are quite cold. The crew is working well together. Klara has
recovered
after seasickness and is fully back on
watches. We have dolphins visiting us every day and saw the water sprays of
whales
a couple of hudred meters from the
boat.
Yesterday evening I was enjoying the sunset as
already many times on this voyage. But this was the first time that I saw the
GREEN FLASH. I heard people talking about it but
hardly anyone has really seen it. In the moment when sun dissapeared in
the ocean ( the last red line on the
horizont was gone) suddenly on the same spot appeared green light like
a flash, shorter than
one second as high as half the sun when
touching the horizont. An impressive view !!
I will try to inspire the crew to write a few lines
for the blog today.
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