This  afternoon the wind came up to nearer 20kts so we now have two reefs in the genoa. We have been flying along at around 7kts and are ahead of our predicted position. We still receive a daily overview of the conditions from Des Cason in Durban. Yesterday he advised to keep heading east until we were beyond the eastern edge of the low pressure system. At some point on the 23rd the edge would catch up with us with cloud, rain and increased wind but then we would progress beyond it and could sail to the NE in about 15kts wind. He gave us an estimated south eastern edge at 48 degrees north, 10 degrees west. This has been our reference point to reach at about 0300 on 23rd (Day 9). At sunset today we could see a bank of cloud behind us on the horizon and assumed this would catch up with us overnight. In fact after dark the wind dropped a little; at 0200 we passed through 10 degrees west and it was a starlit night. Our evening forecast updates show us on the edge of the system with little difference in wind strength between staying on an easterly course for longer or by sailing a more direct route to the NE. In fact if we head much further east we will enter an area of little wind and have a less favourable angle to the wind for sailing north. So we have turned to the north east on a course that will take us just to the west of the Isles of Scilly and along the north Cornish coast. We keep our fingers crossed that the low pressure does not come further east - it has now clouded over.

Incidentally, for most of our circumnavigation we have used the American GFS and European ECMWF weather forecasts. North of the equator GFS is considered to be less accurate so I am now using ECMWF and the UK Met Office for PredictWind weather routing. They are pretty much in alignment. Annie is using GFS and ECMWF for LuckGrib weather routing.

There are a lot of ships out here. Which isn’t surprising given that we are approaching the busiest sea lanes in the world. We enjoy looking at their name, size, destination and so forth as they pass. If I need more information I text son Nick at his London shipping office. The length of the largest ships is now given in fractions of a nautical mile rather than feet. This afternoon we were passed by Universal Innovator, a BP oil tanker that is 0.178nm long, 197ft wide and 37ft deep. It looked gigantic even at four miles distance. Quite why a ship should be universally innovative I don’t know. Maybe it is BP delusions of grandeur. For the most part the romance has gone from commercial ships names. There is no Cutty Sark or Hispaniola that I am aware of. Usually the names reflect the company or something business related. Of course many derive from the Far East and I may not be appreciating the romance of something otherwise incomprehensible to an English speaker. Maybe there is a Sublime Water Lily or Delicate Cherry Blossom out there somewhere. There is a Sakizaya Miracle that passed us today - maybe it was an immaculate conception. There were also two birds - Owl 6 and Happy Albatross. Now Happy Albatross we love. Whoever named it must have had a sense of fun. The ancient mariner would approve. Why an owl should be at sea is a mystery. There must be at least five others out here so to be one of six or more with the same name is not very romantic; come in number 6, your time is up. My guess is that OWL are the company initials ie Owen Wilson Lines or something of that ilk. Or maybe the owner just loves owls but then he could have had Tawny, Eagle, Barn, Snowy, Little and Screech. My money is on the company initials. We have seen another Vega, so all is not lost.

Also seen today was Sohshu Maru, a tanker heading east, destination “Atlantic for Orders”. This is maritime jargon for I don’t want anyone to know what I am up to. Like heading to the Baltic to pick up oil from Russia for delivery to China.