4/05/10
We left the dock at 7:15 and at 7:30 they raised the bridge for us to pass. It opens on
demand every half hour. By
7:50 we were clear enough to sail and
by 10:50 we had the spinnaker
up. Graham being new to the boat is
very keen to try everything. We’re tramping along nicely as the wind is
Southerly Force 4-5, very little cloud cover and lots of heat. We’re getting an extra 2 knots or so
from the Gulf
Stream. Speed Over The Ground is over 10 knots as I write
this.
17:00 We’re in the middle of the Gulf Stream
which is very helpful. The apparent wind is around 10-12 knots and so is
our speed over the ground. It’s 11.6 at the moment and was 12.6 a
few minutes ago. There is
absolutely no sea to speak of so we’ve having as great ride.
Unfortunately my new satellite system –Fleet
Broadband-
is not talking to the satellites. Don’t know if it’s because we’re not so
far from Cape Canaveral ...there is a NASA launch
scheduled today, or if something
shook lose on the mast during the trip from
Auckland.
Also the Iriduim is not very happy although I was able to
send a couple of very short e-mails.
The telephone side is n.g. I
can hear Demetra but she can’t hear me.
Ahhhh Technology.
20:00
Our first 12 hours yielded 135 miles. Amazing. Tonight we feasted on Giant Crab
legs. I had had same at my sister’s
and wanted to do it again. You buy them frozen and pre-cooked. She steamed them
but Ann found a recipe on line (before we left) which suggested wrapping them in
a damp paper towel inside an open
zip lock bag, and nuking them for 2 minutes. A great result!
22:30
We’ve just reluctantly taken down the spinnaker, as the
weather may change overnight and everyone will sleep better. Our speed has dropped a bit with the
poled-out yankee but we’re still doing well over 10
knots. The wind has increased to
South Force 6.
5/07/10
03:00
The wind has clocked SW Force 5 so Steve and I dropped
the pole on the change of watch.
The GRIB wind forecast shows we should have ESE 10 knots. It doesn’t show SW
for another 18
hours.....
The effect of the Gulf Stream has
been reduced and we’re now only making
7- 8 knots. Very little
traffic and no sign of any squalls.
We’re abeam of Daytona
Beach.
10:45
I wake at 10 and the wind has clocked around to SE again
but only 5 knots worth. The current must have still been giving at least a knot
and a half. As there is apparently
very little wind in the offing I start the engine. Our first 24 hours was 227 miles which is probably a record for
us. 171 miles to go so we will be
in early tomorrow morning. Thanks
to the current we doing over 9 knots at 1800 rpm. The Gulf Stream will
turn off shore in the next 60
miles, so the last 100 or so won’t be so fast. It’s likely we’ll be motoring most of
it.
I’m going to try to send this via Iridium so there won’t
be any pictures.
