St. Helena to the Caribbean - Day 7
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 19 Jan 2013 13:36
|
06:27.391S 21:03.007W
January 19, 2013
A faster pace.
The wind picked up into the upper half (15-20 knots) of
its designated range (10-20 knots) yesterday afternoon, and has
remained there ever since. There was a brief moment (40 minutes) this
morning when Don had to reef the two head sails (they furl together easily)
while the wind howled (slight exaggeration) up to 27 knots. As soon as the
mild rain showers exited the area (or we exited the area of rain showers, not
sure which), the wind returned to the upper half of its designated range
and continued to push us along at just over 7 knots. Good
progress all around with the last 24 hours bringing us 175 miles.
We have completed exactly one week at sea, and will
celebrate this momentous occasion with a shared beer at lunch.
A first for this passage (the beer, I mean). We are trying not to
think too much about the 16-ish days still to go.
Positioned 800 miles east of Brazil's pointy end, we are fast
approaching the equator and in a few days will hopefully pick up the 1-2 knot
Guiana Current which runs offshore from (and parallel
to) Brazil's northern coast. It's warmer now and more humid, but
still pleasant with temperatures in the low 80's during the day and just under
80 at night. The blankets have been put away and soon the jeans will
follow (sub-80 degrees at night still feels cold to us, so jeans are still
sometimes necessary for we wimpy folk at night).
Yesterday, ten minutes into Don's afternoon nap, we caught two
smallish (16" long, 4-5 pounds) unidentified grayish fish (UGF). We caught
them at the same time (we troll both a line off the fishing pole
and a hand line when fishing), so must have sailed right through a
school. Feeling like Goldilocks, we declared them too small (day
5's king mackerel was too big, and had too many open sores) and threw
them back. Once they hit the water, they skedaddled back to their friends
sporting a fish hook wound that will hopefully heal, and a story to
tell. We are hoping today's nap-time fish will be just
right.
One week down, two-ish weeks to go.
Anne
|