Waiting for the Drop
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Our position at 12 00 on 22 July is
48:04.7N 011:06.5W . We have about 241 nm to run to Land’s End and we have
completed 130 nm in the last day. Nine full days completed.
July 21 – The weather forecast for two
days hence shows a massive wind hole and after that head winds. I hope they are
wrong but in the meantime we are making good progress on calm seas under a
leaden sky.
July 22 – We have had a remarkable 12
hours. With very little wind but in the right direction, giving us a reach, we
have been rattling along as if on rails at 4s, 5s and 6s. The morning is fair
but quite chilly but we are still doing 5s and 6s at the moment another good day
distance wise and pleasant sailing on a calm sea. We still see no ships but only
the ever present shearwaters and the occasional dolphins who pop up their heads
to say hi.
Its mid day and we are still pressing
on. The sun is shining and we are topless, ooooh. The wind is starting to
move around onto the nose
A whooping great wind hole is forecast
to envelope us within the next 12 hours but no sign of it yet. We will get
another forecast in the next few hours and hope things look a little better. It
would be disappointing to stall now when we are so near to our
destination.
The contract period for our satellite phone expires on 23 July. It’s not worth extending the duration for another month as we will likely be in UK waters by then or very near to being so. Therefore there will be no more blogs after the 23rd until of course we make dry land when I can use the local WiFi to get messages out.
When we are in UK waters we can use our VHF radio to get weather forecasts and to summon help in the event of an emergency. We can even use a mobile phone if we are near to land. Whilst out on the high seas we have had the option of operating our electronic emergency beacon (EPRIB) and still will have in UK waters. In that event a signal would have been sent via satellite to Falmouth Coastguards or the American equivalent and they could decide what action to take. This would usually be to divert a merchant ship to check us out. With the sat phone you could also call Falmouth to explain the problem.
In UK waters we have the very professional services of the RNLI. There is nowhere else where we have travelled save for the parts of Europe and the US where such a service is consistently available. |