Wednesday 49:47N 51:49W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Wed 27 Aug 2008 18:52
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Only 140 miles to go. We passed the iceberg
limit at dusk last night, had a good breeze all night and this morning, but it
has fallen away.
This afternoon there has been a school of dolphins
astern for a couple of hours. Five separate visits by a number I
started guessing at 20, but ended saying that they were so widely spread that
there must be 50. Three times I saw them jumping, but not when they
were close.
We have both the echo sounder and chart
plotter sonar going so I expect they can probably hear us. Two of the
visits were when the engine started for battery charging: These emails on the
laptop take a lot of power.
There is meant to be more wind tomorrow, but we
have enough fuel now to motor the rest of the way. We should
get to St Johns, Newfoundland, in the next day or
so.
It has got steadily warmer, the water
temperature is now up to 17 C (the log helpfully also gives temperature) and my
phone thinks the air temperature is much the same. It is very different to
7 C in Greenland, but even next to the icebergs we never got readings lower
than that. The bergs were always melting rapidly, so that temperature
reading seemed realistic. Now I wander
round with no hat, socks, shoes, jacket or fleece. Even the heater is
turned off.
The spray hood is down too. I prefer it down
unless rain or spray start to fly. Even in cold weather you slide the
hatch back, put your head out and look all round, then close it again
quick. On a day like today I was sat in the hatchway reading for a
while. Jeremy Rogers (the Contessa builder) does a seat that fits
into washboard slots. We can't afford that. Skinny crew are
allowed to sit on the narrow base on the doorway and learn the folly of
insufficient padding. Pompous crew are given a fender; this rolls
about and reduces their security. Myself I prefer the plastic washing
up basin, turned upside down, with a cushion on top: Security and
comfort.
Having bits of ice about in Greenland reinforced
the need to look ahead, peering round the sprayhood and under the genoa, how
much would you miss? Bumping the
small bits of ice is noisy but took no paint off. The larger pieces sink
ice-hardened cruise ships. The Greenland fjords were often calm so we were
motoring most of the time, so spray was not an issue and there was much less
rain than the daily showers down here off Newfoundland.
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