Knot on Call Blog 23rd November

Today two small milestones were achieved, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer (23deg N), the weather is warmer by day but still cool at night and after 4 days sailing we have sailed 580 miles, with a distance to run of 2180 miles, or another 16-17 days if we can keep or improve on that average. A little over 500 miles were in the right direction, the rest was wandering around looking for wind.

Wind we expect to have in plenty, from midnight tonight. There is a massive area of low pressure south of the Azores, some 1200 plus miles in diameter and stretching south to include us on its southern extremity. The picture below gives the idea. We are hoping to be in the green region at the bottom with winds of 20-28 knots and waves of 3.5 m. Spare a thought for the boats who went further north who can expect winds of 40-45 knots and 7m swells. The wind will be on the nose so interesting sailing for the next 24 hours before it moves off north and by Sunday we may well be motoring again! After that we are hoping to see the Easterly trade winds when we may be able to roll out the deck loungers, although the downwind rolling of the boat may dissuade us from that! There are still scarily big holes in the wind south and west of us, like 500 miles wide and 300 miles deep with no wind. The Trade winds will fill in - please. 

Four days in marks the time where even wet wipes fail to penetrate and makeshift bathing is required. We have limited fresh water on board although plenty of bottled water to drink. We had an amusing session of Monty Pythons "lived in a shoe box" this morning re-titled "bathed in a tea pot", eeh tha were lucky, our Mam used to bath me and mi brother in a tea cup and you thought it were aard? Neigh lad I used to shower in an egg cup and wash mi air as well, its tough up North, The young of today etc etc. See below Joyce having an assisted shampoo and set. All in fresh salty sea water and 0.5 liters of fresh water for the final rinse, she looks and smells divine!

The sextant school moves on a pace and successful noon sights of the sun were made today. We did however discover some clear errors in the satellite chart plotter when we discovered that it put us 80 miles south of where the sextant had, it clearly needs some correction or we need more practice.

Sausage, mash, cabbage and gravy for tea tonight but we were gutted to find that the butcher hadn't supplied us with the sausages we ordered. Our gluten allergic crew member has kindly donated his 3 weeks supply to the team cause of tonight's dinner - thanks Triff.

Stop Press: Just discovered a stowaway, a small bird that somehow got trapped in the end of the boom. Phil, in his capacity of animal welfare officer, removed said stowaway but sadly it was deceased. It was given a burial at sea with full naval honors, RIP.