Drifting Again

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sun 4 Oct 2009 13:31
Noon Position: 29 20.6 N 015 07.1 W
Course: Drifting
Wind: Calm
Weather: Sunny, warm
Day's Run: 23 miles

This would have to be the slowest passage I have ever made. We have had
another 24 hours of calm, no wind, a pity the sea didn't match the wind,
then at least we could make use of what light airs play around us. I tried
setting the mainsail for a short while this morning, but the only thing I
caught was a little dove, it flew straight into it and came fluttering down
to the deck. We are about 65 miles from the nearest land so I think it might
be in dire straights. I have nothing suitable to feed a dove so left a small
dish of sugary water to give it an energy boost if it might partake, but I
think it has not and has continued on her way with no refreshment apart from
a little rest. In the meantime the mainsail only crashed about, what ghost
of a breeze there was has left us and I have even had to drop the drifter as
it was simply dragging over the rigging and chafing itself to pieces as
Sylph rolls in the swell. We are experiencing two swells at the moment, the
major one of about one to two meters is from the west and a secondary one
from the north nor' east, which puzzles me. The swell from the west is
obviously from the low pressure system in that direction but there is
nothing in the weather chart indicating where this second swell is emanating
from. I am at last in radio range of Tenriffe, one of the Canary Islands,
and we are picking up their weather forecasts as well. Not terribly
encouraging!

We have covered 23 miles according to my chart plot, but according to the
GPS we have only travelled 4 miles, this is because of the way GPS works out
distance travelled by integrating speed; we have been moving so slowly that
most of the time the speed according to GPS is zero. Fortunately we have
drifted a little bit better than that, close to one whole knot.

The last few days I have been doing a little painting on deck, a first. The
paint on the coach-house is crazing and I need to get down to a good layer
of paint which is proving very tedious, but have over half the coach-house
sides painted with undercoated now. With luck I will get a top coat on while
in the Canaries - whenever that might be.

All is well.

Bob Cat:

Did I hear there was a dove on deck, now what sort of friendship is this
skipper? Friends don't keep secrets from one another do they? Do you think I
would hurt a cute little dove? OH how could you think such a thing! I shall
deal with my hurt feline feelings in my customary manner . . . . Zzzzzzzz.
(Hmmm, I'm dreaming of a dove pie - yumm!)