Position: Entrance to Delaware Bay.
Course: East northeast, speed 4.5 knots
Wind: Southeast, gentle breeze
Weather: mild, overcast. Sea: slight.
Late last night we went to anchor in a shallow patch - the tide was against
us, the wind was light and we were going backwards. This allowed me to
catch a few Z's though Bob Cat for some reason was on the prowl and
interrupted my sleep a number of times demanding attention. At 2 a.m. the
ebb was once more in full swing, the wind was light but sufficient to
maintain steerage way so despite a strong urge to crawl back into my nice
cozy bunk, Bob Cat or no, I lay to the armstrong patent anchor winch, only
30 meters of cable was down and the bottom was relatively clean so it wasn't
long before the anchor was aboard, sail was set and we were making good five
knots or so for the entrance to Delaware Bay. Unfortunately towards dawn the
winds went light and flukey and we drifted around the shoals piled up at the
mouth of the Bay for several hours before a stready breeze from the
southeast filled in at about 11.00. A couple of tacks had us clear of the
many shoals and now we are close hauled on the starboard tack, the wind from
the southeast and as long as it doesn't back, which I am not expecting, we
should be able to maintianing the heading we need to clear Nantucket Shoals
280 miles ahead, thence with luck Newfoundland and beyond ...
PS Seeing as we have been up and down this stretch of coast a few times now
I will enter fewer lat/long positions this leg to prevent the blog map from
getting anymore cluttered. Also I will probably reducde to sending a report
every second day or so to conserve satphone minutes, which are running low
and are expensive.
Bob Cat:
So far so good, though the cuisine hardly justifies such an appelation. a
continuing irritation which no matter how much I implore skipper Bob,
regardless of when or where (I have found about 1 o'clock in the morning
when he is in the prone condition a good time to obtain his undivided
attention), nought changes. Otherwise all is well. The motion has been
quite nice actually, and the sunshine on the patio very civilized, even had
a good quota of pats over the last couple of days, maybe Bob the Sea Cat
will just have to make the most of things. Meeowarghhh! But lets not get
too carried away, I must get some sleep jf I am going to keep the skipper on
his toes later tonight.
Zzzzzz.
|
