Finally, we have wind!! Having looked at the weather for the last few days it was clear that the cause of out lack of wind was that we were sitting in the middle of the high, usually situated over the azores, but which had rather unhelpfully decided to relocate to where we were. After struggling in still water for half a day we decided that it would be to our best interest to burn some diesel and get out of the high. To that effect we motored for 16 hours yesterday and finally, at 2am this morning, we got enough wind to raise the sails and, even better, it was from the south! As I type we are making a lovely beam reach due west and 5 knots. It is an excellent point of sail, all the better for the wait. The other problem with the high pressure sitting over us is that it is rather warm. 

 

As you might gather from the title of this post, we have had an abundance of marine life over the last 24 hours. This is probably due to the fact that for once, the sea is almost smooth, allowing us to actually see what is going on around us. We have now seen Portuguese men o’ war beyond count. As we were having supper yesterday I saw a great column of spume shoot into the air, and looking more closely we could see a pod of whales, coming to the surface to breathe. They were about 300m away, so we couldn’t get a close look but they columns of spray they made as they breathed were at least 20 feet tall! Just after breakfast a solitary whale surface no more than 50m from the boat to take it’s breath. I could see this one clearly and would estimate its size at around 40 feet! Certainly bigger than the boat. Probably a large Minke or small Fin whale. We have also had dolphins a plenty as well.

 

Since we set off we’ve been continually emptying buckets of water from the bilge. At first we just thought this was the rough weather, but after 3 days of relative calm it has still been filling. Today we found the source. The stern gland where the prop shaft exits the hull of the boat is weeping. Probably making about 10 litres a day. I emptied the bilge under the prop shaft (a horrible task as Ruth well knows) and we’ll be keeping on top of that from now on.

 

Hamsi

 

41:50.59N 41:20.48W