Solo
but not Alone! ![]()
Newsletter
4: 10 December
2007
Day:
2
Position: 25:31.855N
20:20.461W
Approx Miles from San
Sebastion: 227
Approx Miles to go to Road
Town: 2591
Note:
All times are GMT time, and will be for the whole trip.
Hello Friends, and Supporters,
Sorry for the wrong date and switched around mileages above, in
yesterday's email. It must have reflected how dis-orientated I
felt!
AS you can see a better day, with about 160 miles sailed in the 24 hrs to
midday on the 10th. Still no great shakes and somehow I was expecting better.
The boat seemed to be going faster than the 6.2 knots the day averages out at!
For probably half the day the wind has been in tthe 15-20 knot range with
Solone's speed indicator showing 8-12 knots! Maybe I am being too
optimistic and forgettiing the light wind patches I had! Anyway the GPS
doesn't lie, so I'll have to just check through the calculations
again.
Overall I am feeling a lot more 'settled in' now, and the wind and sunny
weather probably has helped a bit too. The wind has remained North East, giving
me a braod reach / run down to the 20N, 30W waypoint I am heading for, before I
turn sharp west and head for the caribbean proper. I passed a yacht today that
was already on the wrest route...a shorter one in distance, but I have a feeling
they will get stopeed in the low wind area of the high pressure. We will
see!
I ship passed close by this morning....all safe and I had been alerted by
my Activ Echo radar detector. So I am not ALL alone out here. On aloneness, I
was just thinking that if I don't call Ruth on my satphone until I get to
Tortola, I would have not spoken to anyone for around 3 weeks!! Never done
that before! Wonder what it feels like?
Solone is going well, no further problems come up since the last
newsletter. Holding thumbs.
I had to run the engine for 90 mins yestersday. This to charge the
batteries as the daylight hours are just not enough for the solar panels. Also I
have been a bit 'lazy' letting the autopilot do 95% of the
steering.
Sleep last night had the resemblance of a routine....roughly sleeping for
an hour, then up for 10-15 mins, then back to sleep. Well not quite as pleasant
as that....I had to shake out a reef when the wind lightened, an dthen around
midnight put one back in. For those that don't know, this means making the sail
smaller if the wind increases, or returning it to full size when the wind
strength drops. Reducing bthe sail size takes me about 1o mins if all goes
well!! Its all about planning and then executing correctly!
Hmmm...!
I even felt like cooking today, so have made a potato salad.... yes the
cooking limited to boiling potatoes!! It will get more sophisticated as
days move on!
I finished reading my book titled "The Kit Runner"...very hard
hitting and sad book about Afghanistan and how it disruupted human lives. Lots
of good human stuff, and stuff that makes you think about values, and ho lucky
we are!
That's about it for toady
Till tomorrow.....take care
Howard
