Position at 12.00 hrs on 31 May is 30:09.4N  074:53.2W and we have  544 nm to run to Bermuda.

 

30 May – Our attempt to sail finally hit the buffers at about 13 00 hrs. The wind ceased to blow and we had the choice to sit there until it did so or motor sail. I always have the view that when crossing an ocean what is the point of motoring when there are so many miles to do. Just wait and the wind will blow eventually. However a look at our weather forecast showed a prolonged period of instability where we were but increasing strength 60/70 miles to the east. Its 23 00 hrs and we are still motoring along at about 5 kts and the wind refuses to do anything. We have motored at times through what is termed an oily sea, not disturbed by any wind. I remember rowing through oily seas 7 or 8 years back and being amazed at how ‘heavy’ they were. I likened it at the time to rowing through porridge. It was impossible to get the row boat to move.

 

One benefit of the calms is that we saw a lot more fish jumping around us accompanied by a lot of sea birds. The annoying thing was that none of the numerous jumping tuna took a fancy to my lure. This is also annoying as tuna aren’t possessed of any great intellect and will generally snap at any thing that moves, so much for my angling skills. Therefore for us tea was not tuna ‘sterk’ but corned beef and guess what, ‘potertas’ and onions.

 

May 31 – At 06 00hrs we switched off the engine, the wind was still light but had switched to a northerly, forecast but earlier than expected. It was steady but light around 4.5kts. It was back to sail with the wind on the port beam. We were able to make about 2.5 kts. At the moment we’ll take that in preference to the thumper.

 

Its midday and we are still making progress albeit slowly in the right direction under wind power. The 5 or 6 ft swell that was throwing the sails around has settled down. Maybe its fresh tuna tonight. No luck so far, one thing is different there are no fish jumping today or any sign of the sea birds we had yesterday.

 

Message for Pat no text messages have come through on the sat phone.