Cape Verde Islands to Starboard
Oldnick
Fri 6 Dec 2002 16:40
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We left Gran Canaria at 1300 on Sunday December 1,
found the NE trades over to the east of the island and then turned right for
Rio. The first 3 days were blowing a bit with 25-40 knot NE winds. By day 4
though the wind and sea had abated to what can only be described as perfect
sailing conditions. Right now we are sailing along the eastern side of the Cape
Verde Islands at 7 knots with the spinnaker up - it has been flying for 36 hours
to great effect and we are making good time. The wind drops to around 10 knots
over night and gets up to around 16-18 knots in the mid-afternoon. Night watches
are now undertaken in shorts and t-shirt.
We have seen plenty of dolphins and earlier today
there must have been over 20 of them all vying for the bow of Old Nick. It is
great to watch them darting about under water. Rog was almost taken out by a
flying fish the other night. It splatted into the sprayhood just next to his
head and he was lucky not to get it full in the face. Mick has come out of
his bunk since the good weather has surfaced and is back to full health!
Life on board is now very relaxed. For lunch today
we all gathered on the foredeck and let Lucy (the autopilot) do all the sailing.
In fact Lucy has been by far the most effective member of crew so far and
generally helms 99% of the time (Rog touched the helm for the first time
yesterday). This evening we are adjourning to the foredeck for cocktails (virgin
of course) and Spanish tapas. With the conditions so perfect Old Nick is as
stable at 7 knots as though sitting in the marina so the foredeck is a nice
place to gather - we don't expect to be able to do this once we cross the
equator and hit the SE trades.
Our fresh food supply is dwindling although we have
stashed some frozen chicken in the fridge freezer to save for Christmas
dinner as a treat. We have been eating very well though.
Our plan now (thanks to help from our weather
routeing expert Koopy in California) is to cross 10 degrees North at around
25 degrees West and then cross the equator at around 28 degrees West. Being able
to call up Koopy for detailed weather analysis is an amazing luxury and will be
most useful for the latter stages of the trip. The Iridium phone is another
amazing piece of technology..and at US$1.50/min is not all that expensive
either.
We have currently sailed 750 miles in a tad over 5
days. We have been aiming for an average of 150 miles per day and are slightly
below that at present (due to those lighter winds during the night), but are
working on getting to that mark each day. Our best noon to noon run so far has
been 162 miles.
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