Clear Skies and Steady Winds 150 Miles West of Morocco

Spectra
Paul & Norma Russell
Sat 15 Nov 2014 11:25

23:57.38N 19:08.27W                                                                                                                                          15th November 2014

Clear Skies and Steady Winds 150 Miles West of Morocco

2400 miles from Ramsgate by Log.

            Day three and all is going well 8 am and 250 miles logged. We finally managed to leave San Miguel at 1300 on Thursday having topped up the fuel tanks and a couple of extra containers with 600 litres of diesel, (98 cents a litre pretty damn good). Luckily we did as it was a dead calm for the first 18 hours so it was a motor down to catch the winds while Norma created another masterpiece from the aft deck. As we pulled away from Tenerife a pod of 12 Pilot whales crossed our path which added a bit of excitement to the departure.

 

  The first night came in with the most spectacular sunset of the trip so far and was followed by a clear and starry nights with shooting stars passing at regular intervals, just what the doctor ordered.

We are now settled into our routine of two hours on six off and one on Mummy watch which seems to be working well and with a steady force 3-4 from the North East pushing us along at 6 Knots we are eating up the miles. Wildlife has been interesting so far as usual we had a few isolated dolphins on the first night which were very impressive as the bio luminance was very active and then as the night came in on day two a group of ‘white’ whales appeared to port that were actually breaching I think white whales are Belugas but without wikipedia we can’t settle any arguments aboard. The steering has been a bit spongy again and the auto pilot has been working hard so we bled the system this morning and it has improved no end and so has the aft heads now that i have released the airlock that was blocking it, oh a life on the Ocean waves, it’s all glamour you know. We now have two first rate fishermen aboard, (Tony and Steve) and the talk has been non stop lures, ideal boat speed, wire traces and optimum depths for trolling. Result so far, Cottage pie for dinner what can I say.

I will blog again in a couple of days by which time we should be getting close to the Cape Verde’s.