Course  240  

 

Speed 2 kts

 

 

 

We have become obsessed by wind.  This is because there is none and effectively has been none for 3 days ! 

 

Our wind speed is currently registering as 0 knots and has averaged 2-3 knots through the night and this morning .  We have been flying our spinnaker night and day  but progress is painfully slow and it is taking a lot of effort to keep the boat moving at all.  Oddly, as we have stopped moving over the last couple of days ,we have seen and spoken to far more ships and yachts with our favourite conversation being with the South African skipper of Regina Maris. She is a sail training ship taking 45 kids on a 6 month sailing adventure.  His summary - The weather here is "not good" (He used another phrase but we know that there are a number of kids reading this blog !)

 

The yachts were forced down here by the weather as we were, and like us, most don't carry enough diesel to motor out of this calm.  We started with 150 litres of Diesel as we left Fuerteventura, and at our most economical speed ( ~ 4ts ), Sadie burns 1 litre per hour.  After the adventures of our last 2 weeks we now have ~ 50 litres left in the tank and 20 litres held in reserve.  We want to hold 2 days motoring (the 50 litres in the tank)  because we still have a long way to go to Antigua (if the ARC boats heading south start to confirm that there is significantly more wind down south we will consider burning some of this, but won't do so until we are certain of a positive result).  The 20 litres in the can is to allow us to charge batteries for about an hour a day and to ensure we have an engine to get into Jolly Harbour Marina on arrival in Antigua. 

 

Our weather router (and Chris Wood who is providing info and shore support) are telling us to go SW to pick up stronger winds when they come back.  This is because a series of lows far to the north are disrupting the normal Trade winds .  Chris also tells us that many of the ARC boats who were racing to St Lucia have dropped out and are using engine (as we were yesterday) to get South to the elusive Trades.  He also says that some of the lucky devils wish they had a gaff to land the tuna they have caught !  We have a gaff but are not fishing as we are either stopped or concentrating on moving the boat.

 

We are now at the point where we have to be lucky to make our deadline for the flight home.  Fingers crossed !  

 

 

 

We ate what Jez claims is "the best loaf yet" for breakfast and lunch today.  This is the only loaf Jez has made but to be fair it was pretty good !

 

More swimming - The boat was stopped and it was too hot not to swim at about 1pm.  Our watches are still on UK time although the ships clock is going forward 1 hour per week to match Caribbean time on arrival (hopefully).  We tried a visibility test with a fishing lure and could still see it using a mask and snorkel at 75 m down.

 

Ricky gets to open the advent calender today. 

 

 

Natural History.

 

Loads of birds and Dolphins about but all types previously seen and described.

 

The dolphins didn't stay for long but there were masses of them, at least 20, and they were jumping clear of the water beside the boat.

 

1 jellyfish - we don't now how to describe a jellyfish and no-one wanted to grab it, but it was small.  About 4 or 5 inches and electric blue for the bits that were not clear jelly.

 

 

 

Jason - Thanks for the weather info.  Ties with our forecast but that says 5ts today and we have zero. 5 would do to get us moving away.  Small sacrifice of alcohol going to Neptune tonight.

 

Ellis - Cold is something we are not suffering from.  The chap we were talking to was sailing a Forgus 31, which is a yacht built in Sweden.  That's all we know.  I was hoping that stuff would come up with Google and you could summarise the type of boat for comparison to us.

 

 

Harvey - Glad yours is OK (Dragon).

 

Joseph - More tests - you need to be working, not testing.  Or you should be playing football !

 

Lizzie - Thanks for all your news.  I love hearing from you.