Slowing down

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 30 Mar 2013 21:23

00:53.803N 85:05.644W

Saturday 30th March 2013

Distance run so far: 323
Distance run in 24 hours, day 3: 158 nmiles
Distance run in 24 hours, day 4: 124 nmiles
Total distance run: 605 nmiles

We had a good day's sailing yesterday, with wind from behind and a following sea, mainly running downwind under double headsails. With winds from the south forecast on Sunday, we were getting as much south in our direction as possible. Which is just as well because early today the wind came round to the south west - precisely the direction we need to go, and much earlier than forecast. It also has a west element in it that doesn't feature at all in the forecasts.

So we are now close-hauled and just about managing to sail a decent course at a reasonable speed towards the Galapagos Islands. Earlier we ran the engine for a couple of hours when the wind came round and headed us completely. We have around 350 nmiles left to go if we manage to sail the rhumb line. Fingers crossed the wind comes round a bit to the east, otherwise it's going to be slow going.