Perspective

Pemandia
Peter Fabricius
Fri 29 Jul 2016 20:21
47:27.00N 12:17.00W

"Where is our closest land?" Has been a question during this passage and on the outward bound trip. Partly about where to bale out if in difficulty and partly just about general interest. During my passage out, I quite often described my progress in terms of the nearest land and its distance. On the way home it has been very different: because we headed due N to start with, the Azores remained our closest land for some 5 days at least. By contrast, on the way out when I got too far E, Lisbon was closer than the Azores until the last 300 miles or so. Now, at latitude 47:27' we are on the same latitude as the Morbihan in S Brittany. And yet, our closest land is still La Coruna in NW Spain at 298 miles whereas Brest is 320 miles.

We have had a fast day's sailing 168 miles in 24 hours. For a while this morning we were doing between 8 and 9 knots. Since then the wind has moderated a bit and also veered further N but we are still doing around 6 knots.

We are just about to clock up 1000 miles with 363 to go. Inevitably we have opened the book on our arrival time. I have gone out on a limb of optimism and guessed some time around 0200 Monday. Sensibly the others have more conservative (realistic?) estimates. We will keep you posted.

Peter

Sent from Yacht Pemandia