Position 36:19.60N 12:48.32W

 

So despite the sunshine, yesterday was a bit frustrating.  During the day the wind dropped to 7 kn, and with it our speed.  The 24 hour run  was the lowest by some way – 110 Nm.  The big issue this created was lack of power; with the hydrognerator not producing below about 5 knots we have been in full power save mode.  Apart from the fridge and autopilot, the computer has been off for other than a couple of checks each watch, the boat Rayamarine plotters are off, and if has been torches in the cabins.  Early excitement caused by  cargo ship heading straight for us with it’s AIS saying “not under command”.  Sprimg into action  - quick gybe to chang course, then a VHF callto them – they were under command, but had not changed the AIS setting.  Quick gybe back to original course, cargo ship changed course by 10 degrees, and issue over. 

At this stage we had doused the symmetric as the sea was to lumpy to hold it in the little wind, and set the A sail goosewinged poled out;  worked well and we ran with that all night.

During the night the wind has increased marginally, we have occasionally been hitting 6 knots – more commonly 5, and the battery voltages are slowly rising. 

During the night we did real sailing – with no instruments we had 3 on 3 off watches, with one helm and one spotter on each watch.  James even had the opportunity to use a hand compass at night to check the bearings of a boat on the horizon.

Sunny morning – time for bacon butties.