Heading north.

44:02N 21:34W
Sunday 14th June 2009
44:02N
21:34W
Sunday
14th June 2009 Good
morning to you all, we are still rocketing along at more than seven knots most
of the time, our average speed is now 6:4 knots, it has been hard to rest in
these boisterous conditions with very large seas of seven to ten meters in
height with the odd rouge breaking over us or putting us on our ear. We have a
heavily reefed main but in between squalls we are flying full Genoa, when a
squall hits it brings heavy rain and gusts in excess of 40
knots. Life
on board is difficult to say the least, cooking meals is the hardest task but,
despite this Drew cooked breaded chicken breasts with fresh vegetables last
night, We
have been keeping company with a small group of yachts that have been on
our track, but this morning they have disappeared possible making for La Coruna.
We are making good progress to the north east, our log now shows 462 nm of
1100nm completed that’s 638 nm to run if my muddled mind is not playing tricks
with me. We
picked up our first Navtex from St Morgan in Cornwall this morning and it tells
me that you are not enjoying that promised long hot summer. I hope we will be
towing a little Bermudian sunshine behind us. I
am on my morning watch from 08:00 to 10:00 Guy is in the cockpit supping his
first coffee of the day but Drew and Lucien have taken to their bunks again once
their watch duty finished. There
are many things that have to be done on a regular basis, we log and plot our
position, track and course every hour and record that in the ships log, the
management of our power supplies has to be monitored, I am running the generator
about one to one and a half hours twice a day. We are consuming about 170 amp
hours over twenty four hours, this is being topped up by the wind generator
continuously but needs a boost of the diesel generator. We
monitor channel 16 on VHF and the Navtex is producing regular updates of
navigational warnings and weather information from a Varity of stations within
range. Well
the change of watch has come (good morning Drew) so I will sign off until
the next time. Best
wishes to you all from the crew of Libertad. |