SV Eleonora - 47:33.082N 006:59.000W

47:33.082N 006:59.000W

SV Eleonora

Michael A. Andronov

Tue 24 Jul 2018 13:29

UTC 1247

Local time -- unknown...

The distance travelled since Antigua -- 4164.6 nm...

The distance to go... Well, from the current boat position to Cabo Finisterre -- about 300 nm... Plus some distance to the bay, to the anchorage, mooring or marina... With a good wind -- about 2 and half days of sailing...

With a good wind -- the key words. There is no good wind at the moment. That has been known from the beginning, as I was leaving Falmouth. The winds will be very light and variable till Saturday... as the cold front should pass by and bring nice sailing winds in the area... The options were either to stay and wait in Falmouth ( and / or around), or to take chances and to try the ligfht winds...

I've chossen the light winds. For a couple of reasons...

The light winds are less predictable. Nobody can say if it is going to be 3, 5 or 7 knots of wind... as long as the prediction is -- light winds... Nobody can say the exact direction either...

I found to deal with the light winds in the Ocean is more interesting and challenging then to deal with the moderate and strong winds... Both on a pure technical level -- to maintain the boat speed, direction, trim sails... and on the pure personal level -- when you have to deal with the patience and acceptance rather been just physically tired from pulling the lines...

Also, the hope was -- and still is -- that by the time the weather would settle to sailing -- we would be near the coast of Spain anyway... ;-)

The bottom line -- we are sailing, and presently are between the Bay of Biscay ( on port side ) and the Atlantic ( on the starboard).

Sailing -- is a big word... Depending on the sparadic winds, we are going from 1.9 kts -- you saw the right number!, up to 4.5 kts -- considered the high speed during the last 2 days... and all in between... Whih provides a plenty of opportunity to learn what the boat likes, what she does not like... to play with all possible sail trimming... Real fun! and no real physical workout at the same time...

Besides playing with the sails -- life as usual

-- reading;

-- cleaning, cooking; and cleaning again! ;-)

-- some small repairs and maintenance here and there...

The only difference from the 'borring sailing' -- I'm taking more rest during the day... We are moving through the very busy area, with a lot of traffic. The traffic separation lines -- around France point -- is over. Most of the ships are keep going the similar orginised way... toward the next traffic separation lines over Cabo Finisterre... ( my guess )... But some -- have to change the route since they are going somewhere else in the world... And those -- are becoming the loose cannons... since they are crossnig the area at about 90 degrees to the imaginary Traffic lines... During theday -- it is not so bad... Everyone is visiabe at least...

During the night -- it is challenging... You may see only radar, you see only lights... and the distances and angles of crossing -- are very confussing...

Unfortunately, there is no other way to learn it -- only to try, and to get used to... And that is exactly what we are doing now!

And in order to avoid unpredictable situations during the night, I'm taking more rest during the day and running more awake turns during the night hours...

The weather -- besides the winds -- is very cooperative. May be it is purely my bias and imagination -- but it is getting warmer. There is a lot of Sun... I hope my cold is slowly disappearing, and I'm expecting ( hoping ) to be back in full shape in acouple of days... .

In short -- both the boat and myself are fine, and we are progressing in accordance with the plan ! ( At least the boat should have one, I hope! ;-)).

Talk to you soon,