41:13.021 N  042:.46.751 W

24/06/10

17:30

The wind has clocked enough so we’re able to sail about 25 degrees off course to the North East.  The motion is immediately better.  The saloon dorade vents  which are supposed to be designed to separate air and water have done their usual trick of passing water instead of air  into the deck head. Now that were sailing and not pounding into it, things should be dry again.

25/06/10

00:00

Steve whipped up one of his famous chicken curries for dinner.

He only used six chilli  peppers.

The wind has finally gone South and we’re sailing almost on course. At the moment it’s only Force 4, but we’re still managing 7 knots or so.

We just overtook another yacht 1 ¾ miles away.  I tried to contact them via radio but they didn’t answer.    Earlier this evening we picked up a transmission from the Canadian Coast Guard in St Johns, Newfoundland 335 miles away, which is a fluke for VHF reception which normally has a max range of 40-60 miles. They spoke with great clarity and measured assurance unlike the US Coast Guard broadcasters who have all taken a speed talking course and rapid fire their warnings so fast as to be utterly unintelligible.

Instead of saying “Pan, Pan” with a normal long “a” they say “Pon, Pon” which rhymes with “Ron”and sounds like they’re trying to be upper class British, which of course with their local accent sounds ludicrous.

26/06/10

08:00

Another very foggy morning. The wind has finally  clocked WSW but there isn’t a lot of it yet.  We’re making  6 knots-ish  40 degrees off course towards the South East.

The stronger wind appears to be South of us and hopefully  later today we will find it. As I type  our boat speed has dropped to 4 knots.

09:30

After over an hour of  going slowly in the wrong direction at great expense I hoist the iron mainsail and the boat speed  magically increases to 7.5 knots in the right direction still alas at great expense.  It was either that or run the generator as the batteries were due for a charge.

12:30

At midday we rigged the spinnaker and once it way flying, found that the port sheet had to be led farther aft than normal as we were carrying the sail  pretty far forward with the wind just behind the beam rather than well aft of the beam.  We partially doused the sail in the sock but not below the parachute wing and while changing over the lead of the sheet we got lots of twists in the spinnaker and couldn’t  re-hoist it until it was untangled which fortunately was achieved with a lot of grunting and swearing and we’re now sailing at seven knots on course.

It’s still very misty and more important much warmer than it’s been.  The SW wind is really welcome.

16:00

Still sailing in the fog, with about 100 metres viz all around the boat.  It’s very eerie.  The mist is caused by the comforting warm air from the SW meeting the cold sea.  We had a short visit from several of the smaller more gregarious dolphins.  The Spinnaker is doing very well, we’ve never carried it this far forward before. Yesterday’s run was a paltry 154 miles, with 4 ½ hours under engine. We have 672 miles to go. Our current ETA is Tuesday but it’s too early to say when.

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