40:10.8N 54:25.5W
Sula Sula III
Mark
Sun 25 Jun 2023 17:29
The wind the seas and Sula have been both gentle and generous to us allowing ideal conditions for Junior to learn to sail, at the same time, the forces we witnessed passing the sentinels of, whatever it was they were guarding, acts as a constant reminder that we are entirely at the mercy of the trinity.
At 08.00 (Sula Time) this morning, we put the daily x on the chart; we had travelled 142 miles in the 24 hrs to then, but all of them towards Falmouth rather than Halifax or Newfoundland.
Today we are maintaining 6.5 to 7 knots in about 2 metre swell and Junior has a chance to develop his surfing skills. To be fair, at 15 tons it is more a case of trying to ensure the waves don't boss our course than surfing, but the wheel inputs are much the same.
One of the models on predict wind advocated the course we chose yesterday, and now at our new position there is greater consensus (only vaguely reassuring). There appears to be a narrow corridor of wind at the interface of the high pressure systems to the North and South East of us....that is what we are hoping will get us between them. Junior is convinced that as long as we keep on going the way the wind the sea and Sula have decided it will be cool man, and given the way we have faired to date, he may well be onto something.
Other news, the birds (same species as the guard of honour) in this part of the ocean have not learned the wake food trick so fly past us with grace but no interest, and the pair of red billed tropic birds that spent 15 days trying to land on the top of the mast without success have also not ventured this far north, but we have a new arial companion, much smaller, more agile and faster; like a sort of Sparrow Hawk of the waves. They fly by flapping their wings rather than gliding, and fly even closer to the water than their cousins.
Will try calling Will again as we enter the "Approximate Iceberg limit June/July" bit of the North Atlantic chart.... I am sure it is a very conservative line, but as our course will take us into it for four or five days and nights it would be good to know how vigilant we need to be; Will has very kindly agreed to have a look at the US coastguard site that co-ordinates Berg data and let me know if any have reached as far south as we will be going.