The moon 40:12.4N 48:14.5W Sailed 1073 milesw from Newport leaving 982 to go to Terceira.
Ellatrout3
Tue 15 Jul 2014 00:34
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I talk about the sun dropping into the sea; well last
night this huge yellow full moon rose out of the sea. Did you knoww that
both the sun and the moon appear bigger than normal when they are on the horizon
and navigators have to make allowance for this when using a sextant to find
their position. Of course nowadays we have GPS and the sextant is old
technology, but I carry one just in case somebody decides to turn the GPS off,
what a mess the world would be in then! Sorry I'm wandering off the point
- That beautiful moon rose into the sky and lit everthing in its silvery
glow.
I was grateful for this because I was up most of the
night. The wind was strong on the quarter as it had been for the last few days
and we were sailing on the edge. As each wave came up behind the boat it
would pick her up and she would sit on the wave like a surfer accelerating to
the speed of the wave and staying there for long spells until she eventually
fell off. The silvery light, the warm air, the roar of the water as she
raced through It and the very power of wind and water was both
exhilerating and un-nerving I knew we were going too fast and I ought
to reduce sail but she was handling it so well I did not want to interfere so I
sat up with her ready to leap into action should things go wrong. I don't
know how long the roller coaster went on for but eventually I think I was
mentally exhasted and I slowed her down and reduced sail. She still went
fast down the waves, of course, but they quickly passed under her and life
was more predictable. She really is a great boat!
The day has been progressively declining wind with cloud
and rain quite unlike the beautiful clear night. And when it rains with
the wind behind you it comes straight into the cabin so you have to keep
everything shut up and get cooked down below or get wet on deck.
One really bright spot; there was a flying fish on the
deck this morning. I have never seen one before but there was no doubt
what it was. About 5 inches (12cms) long with big front wing fins and
smaller back tail plane fins. He may have been trying to get away from the
dolphins because they came to play at the bow today?
More news tomorrow,
Love Poppa/Dad/Roger
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