Starting to move along
The Travels of Running Tide
Mick Norman
Wed 16 Jul 2014 12:28
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Our position at 12 00 on 16 July is
42:03.3N 024:56.2W . We have about 930 nm to run to Land’s End and we have
completed 121 nm in the last day. Three full days completed.
15 July – A steady wind is giving us
good speed and we have gone below the 1000 nm mark well before midnight giving
us the excuse for drinkies at midnight, a ship’s biscuit and a nogin of cheese
for me. Norm is sticking with the crisps. A beautiful moonlit night, a calm sea
and a slight swell to help us along, our speed is in the 5s and 6s.
16 July – More of the same, calm seas
with a slight swell and sunshine and a respectable breeze, speed in the mid 5s
on a starboard reach.
We are always amazed that we see so
little shipping and that includes ships that we ‘see’ via the AIS. These are
ships shown on the chart plotter which could be up to 30 nm away and not visible
to us. We also don’t see a lot of fish except occasional dolphin sightings but
we do see fairly frequently the Cory’s shearwater. We have no idea what this
bird eats, fishy bits we assume. We see then 1000’s miles from land swopping
gracefully around skimming just centimetres above the water or just sitting
there on the water looking at us. We have never seen then in the acting of
fishing such as diving or taking fish from the surface. Answers on a postcard if
you know. Apparently they drink seawater, what else is there and secrete the
salt through glands in their noses. I think this is common to sea
birds.
Sailing at the moment is really easy
we just tweek Monica from time to time other that that we just sit there and we
cruise along. We read, listen to music and just sit there admiring the view as
we roll along. Wind strength is only about 12 kts but plenty to give us good
speed. The sun is shining and it was a shirts off day yesterday. A little cooler
today. |