43:44.054N 19:19.173W
SV Eleonora
Michael A. Andronov
Sat 7 Jul 2018 22:09
UTC & local time -- 2040.
Somewhere behind the clouds -- there is the
Sun. It is still there, since there is still light coming through the
clouds...
The whole day -- we were covered around with kind
of smog / fog... Grey sky, covered with grey layer of clouds, grey water,
and the boat with white sails...
The water is flat, nearly flat... And we are
gliding... being not sure where, being not sure why... ;-)
As predicted -- there were not too much wind during
the day... On top of it, the wind changed from SW to NW, then N, and
keeps changing direction clockwise, veering... It would have been fun to
watch and to analyse if there were not 2 factors involved --
1. Even though we were pointing close hull,
there has been no enough wind to move the boat... So, no choice -- i've
started the motor, motor sailing...
2. And as soon as we starting motor sailing -- the
wind started to veer, blocking us from the direct route to UK...
So, everything as predicted -- N, NE winds,
starting to pick up by the evening... Though it has been
predicted -- it does not make life any easier... We are motor sailing the course
of 085T when we need to go 057T... And those 30 degrees
difference -- exactly where the light wind is coming from...
;-)
The major intrique for now -- how much
further the wind is going to veer... As always in real life -- you ask 3
different weather channels -- and you get 5 different opinions... Pick up
the one you like most...
As you can feel by the tone of the message -- the
spirit and the mood on boat is following the weather... The prespective of
beating against the wind all the rest of the trip, having Biscay on starboard,
and the Atlantic on the port...
Cool... But beating... again ?!
;-) At the same time -- no much choice...
But life is going on, and the only way to deal with
days like today -- at least, the only one effective way I'm aware off --
to keep going as 'planned'. For toady -- it means checking
equipment, making small repairs...
The boat cooperates fully with that and is
throwing challenges at me, targeting my head... trying to take away
ability to think logically... ;-) The challenges of today --
electornics and the contacts... It is really amazing what the salty enviroment
is doing to the connectors... All charging cables for IPhone and iPad --
gone... Managed to reasamble one... picking and soldering connectors from
different cables... It is working for now... But we will see...
Sat phone -- was the longest to bring back to
life... But finally, started to work again, and I hope this message will be on
the blog shortly... Speaking of the Satphone... It brings back the issue
of telecommunications, getting connection with the 'main land', with
people...
Connection with the land, with people -- has
been the issue from the first days of sailing the 'small vessels' around the
globe... What amazed me most... Since 60s of the last century -- I'm
deliberately not going further behind -- till today, the communication
technology made a tremendous progress... And never the less, the
communication with land -- and between the boaters on small yachts -- I'm
not talking about big vessels, super yachts, etc. -- is sitll a major challenge.
And some recent conversations makes me to believe
that the major challenge and issue -- is not a technology at all, but
rather us, human
beings... E-mails, Networks, Facebook &
social networks of all kinds -- makes it so easy to shoot the words,
photos, all kind of info from place to place...
An old adajo -- there is no free
lunch -- is taking place here too... And as technology progressing, some
humanity, feelings, relationships are vanising from the communications
itself... May be it is just me... I hope, it is just me...
But I get a strange feeling that the culture of
letter exchange, as we may referred to the letters of
Mandelshtam, Tolstoy, or Hugo -- long time gone...
We learned how to talk, we do not care
if we express ourselves clearly... and we slowly loosing capability to
listen...
Grey day, grey weather, grey thoughts! At
least something is going in unison... ;-)
We have just tacked... and now going 336--340
T... Straight into tho open Atlantic... Soon the wind would recognise our trick,
and will back, blocking us again from our progress... ( at least, I hope
so... ) ;-) And then we will tack again, to the course to our
destination... And we will keep doing that, again, again, and again...
Sailing sounds like fun, isn't it?
Talk to you soon ( sat phone permits),
M.
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