A day of mixed fortunes
Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Fri 26 Nov 2010 13:31
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Our position is 25:05.64N 17:52.06W
24 hour Run Log trip (through the
water) 109.9Nm
24 hour Run GPS
(overground)
103Nm
Midday wind and weather
Force 4 W Sunny with some
cumulus
Sea
state:
choppy on a low swell
Temperature:
26C
The last 24hours have been a bit frustrating,
mainly because we can not go in the direction we want to. The wind is not
blowing from the NE as one might expect here in late November but is being
driven by two low pressure systems tracking further south across the Atlantic
than usual. (We hear Remedios has experienced thunder storms and 30plus knots of
wind in the last few days.) Yesterday afternoon our wind fell light and
veered from SE to SW, making progress very slow. By dinner time, sausage carrots
and mash with onion gravy cooked by John, the wind was fresh from the SW and our
track further to the east than we wanted. By the time Peter was on watch (22:00
to 24:00) it was up to 30Knots, making progress to windward and life on board
difficult.
When daylight came it was time from a reassessment
of our position. After a report from Kay and downloading gribs we accepted that
our best bet was to free off and gain boat speed at the expense of westing. By
passing within 80 miles of
Cabo Corveiro on the
Western Sahara coast we hope to avoid the worst of the SW winds associated with
the next low pressure, and then make up the ground lost to the west. (We should
be passing 100miles west of Cape Verde)
Since freeing off progress has been good in
20Kts from WSW with speeds up to 7kts and it is a lovely day although there are
only two dryish seats in the cockpit as waves slop in from time to
time. However at present the wind is dropping a bit and the crew are
shaking out reefs as I type.
I'm on lunch duty so I had better get on with
it.
EJW
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