The Azores High 40:37.9N 65:37.5W Sailed from USA 253 to go to Azores 1770 miles
Ellatrout3
Tue 8 Jul 2014 19:41
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The Azores high seems to be fairly stable at the moment
giving us quite strong south westerly winds. As you can see from the
numbers above I've done 250 miles in two days; what a difference to the easterly
trip where I was grateful for 80 miles a day. I am doing 6 to 7 knots
through the water and surging to over 8 down the waves with three reefs in the
mainsail and 4 rolls in the jib. These conditions look as though they will
last till at least Friday so we are really flying home.
Last evening it was cool and I had a jumper and a
fleece on to keep warm. The sea temperature was only 14 degrees and the
phosphoresance (not sure about the spelling) was absolutely brilliant. The
trail from the keel and every breaking wave was illuminated in a greeny white
light, and when I pumped the toilet the bowl positively sparkled with little
creatures flashing off light. I had to get up at 0200 to reduce sail and
take in a reef and I was surprised to find it was sultry warm!
The sea temperature had risen from14 to 25.8 degrees in just that short time and
it is now 27.7. Also; my speed though the water was 6 to 7 knots but the GPS
showed my speed over the ground was 8 to 9, so the Gulf Stream was giving me a 2
knot push which lasted till the morning.
At dusk it was quite calm and about 3 miles ahead of
me I I could see Paul in Independance, I called him up and we had
a good chat on the VHF radio. We had been exchanging position via the
Iridium phone and planned to try and take photos in the morning but we were 5
miles apart by then and not in site of one another and the sea was rough, never
mind!
We ARE off to a good start,
Love Poppa/Dad/Roger
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