Monday 53:03N 50:50W

Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Mon 25 Aug 2008 12:00
A better day, we got our 101 miles.  There was another good breeze through the day, although it was close ahead all the time. 
 
The wind went light in the evening as usual but then came back in a 9pm last night.  At 1am it was blowing hard enough for me to roll the genoa away completely, leaving staysail and full main.  I ducked reefing in the dark. 
 
By 8 this morning I rolled out half the genoa, but pulled down one reef to compensate.  We are holding 5 knots, which to windward is quite enough.  Windows both sides getting occasional washes.  There is even a bit of sunshine.
 
Birds but no whales recently, although Navtex reports from Boston are telling shipping to keep clear of right whales in the approaches.
 
The great shearwaters are around with the fulmars all the time.  They behave in much the same way, low over the waves, but are a bit more sociable.  You often see two or three shearwaters in formation, gliding fast up and down over the waves.  Sometimes even in formation with a fulmar.  
 
I had a very clear view of a petrel.  I noted it in the log as a Leach's petrel, the wing bars were similar to a sketch in one book, but it could have been a Storm petrel or Wilson's really.  The ones that flew round the boat cheeping at me the other morning, when I first put my head out after daylight, I put down as Wilson's but I need a better look to distinguish them. 
 
More breakfast now, on to the coffee and bread & marmalade.  Toast is not allowed as there is not enough gas.