Heading West.....
Chelone's travels.....
John and Susie Blair.
Wed 28 Nov 2012 10:11
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N22:00.00 W25:34.00
Wednesday 28th November, can you believe it's seven
days since we left Lanzarote! Given fair winds we can sail just
over a thousand miles a week so around three weeks to make the 3000
mile trip across to Barbados.We hope to make our landfall somewhere around 14th
December but who knows what the winds have in store for us yet, I've been
monitoring the trade winds for the crossing between 14 and 22 degrees
Latitude over the past few weeks and conditions have been light so we're doing
well so far.
Yesterday we had our first sighting of a Turtle.
Susie spotted it basking on the surface and we came about to take a closer look.
In fairly calm conditions we got to within a few feet of it and Ross took some
great pictures before sailing on. There are still some birds flying around,
Sooty Shearwaters and Storm Petrels glide and wheel over the sea, their
wings seemingly skimming the waves, where do they sleep I wonder?
Hey, good job we left the Canary Islands when we
did or else we'd have been delayed and lost a week due to that bad weather I
mentioned before. Apparently the ARC sailors were unable to leave until yesteday
due to severe gales though we heard that the hardcore bigger racing
yachts did make a go of it. We've been motor sailing in light winds which gave
us a chance to repair the tear in the Genoa (Headsail) yesterday. Susie, myself
and Louise took up needle and thread and sat around the saloon table
sewing before hauling it back up through the overhead saloon
hatch where Martin, Ross and myself re-hoisted it.
The weather is roasting hot so we're sunbathing on
deck a lot now and presently there's a lovely bright full moon to keep
watchkeepers company through the night. Still no luck with the fishing line
but soon the flying fish will be flying up onto our decks so we'll at least
have some fresh fish that way!.
Our SSB radio check in with 'Herb' is the highlight
of our evening. His valuable advice tallies with our own
interpretation of the weather charts that we download via the internet
(Grib files via Sat phone) and Weatherfax (via SSB radio). Normally we would
still be sailing South West, plunging down to around 14 degrees latitude in
order to tap into reliable tradewinds but there's very little wind down there at
present so we must stay at a lofty 22 degrees for now though eventually we'll
want to sail South as Barbados is at 13 degrees (or else we'll make landfall in
the Bahamas!). Herb said last night that we can expect to see the wind increase
and veer to 15knts North Easterly by East so we're looking forward to that
today.
As I write, all crew are asleep, the sun is
making an appearance into a cloudless sky at Chelone's stern, so it looks to be
another scorcher, I think I'll fill the oven with part baked rolls then we can
have hot smoked bacon rolls with a fried egg in for brekkie....oooh yes!
Bye for now, JB.
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