Restless Atlantic Crossing - 12
Restless of Auckland
Roland and Consie Lennox-King
Thu 31 May 2007 22:54
Hello again,
We are currently at 44:18.29N and 20:50.03W with 749 miles to go to Cork.
We have 20-25 knots from the southwest and boat speed of around 7-8 knots.
Well the weather has been rather consistent since our last email.
We've been bobbing along in 20-25 knots from the west and now southwest pretty
much since we left the Azores! We have also had between 6-10 feet of swell
also from the southwest most of the time so have had a fairly rocky time
and good surfs down some pretty big waves! We've also been averaging
about 160 miles a day so have put some good miles beneath the keel en route to Ireland!
I have a feeling that we are about to get told off this afternoon though!
Since leaving Bermuda we have been in contact with Herb, the Atlantic weather
guru, AKA southbound 2 on the SSB. (the single side band radio that is used when
you're not in direct line of sight with another
receiver) He gives a heap of boats information about the weather conditions in
their area and what they should expect where they're going. Anyway, the day
before yesterday, Herb told us that we should head east and not go north of 40
degrees latitude as there is a low pressure system up there somewhere and we'd
get 25-30 and possibly 35 knots of wind in the next few days should we continue
on our bearing, so we should stay low until it passes. However since we were
already in 20-25 knot winds, having fun and making some good ground we
decided to push on. Yesterday we got a little telling off from him when we told
him we were at 42 degrees north and he told us again to stay at 42 degrees and
to head east again. Since we're now at 44 degrees north and due to check in with
Herb I have a feeling he's not going to be too happy with us. It will be
interesting to see what he'll have to say as we've heard him telling other boats
off and told them to turn around and go back! Anyway we think he likes to direct
boats around the Atlantic to keep them in 10-15 knots of wind and anything over
20 knots you should throw out the sea anchor and wait till it passes, so that's
the reason for us disobeying his 'orders'. Also he said, apparently on
Saturday we have a front crossing us and the winds will go to the northeast
(exactly where we're heading) and die off to 10-15 knots so we think we may as
well make hay while the sun's shining (or miles while the wind's blowing)
So that's about the most excitement we've had in the last few days. I
know it's not much but you see us extremely experienced sailors out here have
got this down to a fine art and we're running this ship like a well oiled
machine! Mind you we are still having minor problems with Moni, the wind vane
but with a little attention she's back in line and performing her duties like a
good girl should.
Anyway, that's about it from us. Everyone's still smiling and we're getting
through our books and magazines and fingers crossed we'll be in Cork by the 5th
or 6th for a well deserved Scotch!!!
Keep the emails coming! They fill a vital gap in our every day
entertainment schedule!
Love from the crew of Restless!