Almost There
The Travels of Running Tide
Mick Norman
Fri 25 Jul 2014 13:28
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Our position at 12 00 on 25 July is
49:50.7N 006:00.4W . We have about 14 nm to run to Land’s End and we have
completed 85 nm in the last day. Twelve full days completed. The way
point we have been using is for Land’s End whereas we want to get around the
Lizard headland to reach Falmouth so a few more miles yet.
24 July – With clear skies and wispy
cloud we are making reason time on course. But, this is not to last and we are
push off course but we hang in there and it comes back on course. I think there
are some tidal current effects here as we near land. These effects will increase
the closer we get to our way point off Land’s End. We can see the current
vectors on our chartplotter and from our tables. These will change with the
normal tidal cycle and is just another factor which will assist or hinder our
progress dependent on part of the cycle we are in.
25 July – More of the same. Easy to
make eastings but at the expense of the northings. At some time we are going to
have to tack but not until it is too our advantage. This opportunity comes at 06
00 when we have been headed down to 120 deg true. A tack to the starboard get us
going more or less north. The wind has shifted more to the east. This is good as
it means we can use thus shift to our advantage to point higher on the starboard
tack. We are getting there slowly. The good thing is that there is wind not a
lot about 12 knot but in a calm sea we can make reasonable progress. As long as
we can make sensible progress we keep the thumper off and sail along in
peace on quiet.
Lots of ships around showing up on the
AIS/chartplotter. It looks quite scary on the screen until you look up and can’t
see a single ship or just a vague outline on the horizon.
Progress may not be spectacular but
the sailing is lovely. Calm seas, warm and a reasonable breeze giving us 3.4 – 4
kts. Both Norm and I are keen to get to Falmouth but sad that this will be the
last complete day of sailing on this voyage all 12,000 nm of it.
I have just used my last teabag so I
will be helping Norm finish off the instant coffee which is a bit low as well.
After that we will be on real coffee and orange juice.
Whoa, a white dove with a twig in its
beak has just landed on RT. No it’s a pigeon actually. Its now strutting around
the deck as if he owns the place and probably crapping everywhere. I’II let him
have a rest and then chase him off. He paid four deposits before we got rid of
him. |