Day 1: Wher's the wind??
The Voyages of Richard and Amanda
Mon 24 May 2010 12:06
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Midday position: 50:25.19N
002:29.67W
Currently we are drifting with the tide about 5
miles south of Portland Bill. We have just been motoring for the last 3.5 hours
to take advantage of the tide going westward to get past the Bill and we are
hoping that we will get far enough away that when the tide turns we don't loose
all the ground we made up. We have an indicated wind speed of 7knots, but the
sea is absolutely flat calm so it might just be 7 knots at the top of the
mast!!
We left the marina yesterday at about 11am, after a
big send off from the children and grandchildren and with a Southerly sea breeze
to start us off decided to go through the Solent rather than south of the
Island. The sea breeze died away to be replaced with an Easterly so we had a
great opportunity to get out our new spinnaker, which we flew from
just off Ryde till we were nearly at Yarmouth.
The first night went well, again with hardly any
wind and our watch system is going well. Amanda was on watch first till 2am; she
had a challenging time trying to make Justine Gabrielle go in a straight line in
no wind, and did very well. We could follow her track on the plotter and unlike
in Sprinter coming back from the Azores there were no circular bits, where
we just went round and round.
My watch was equally frustrating with an hour going
west at 2knots followed by another 2 hours drifting back again when the wind
died.!!
Anyway it has been a nice gentle introduction which
is what we both wanted.
The forecast is for variable winds becoming East or
Northeast 4- 5, for the next 48 hours, so once they arrive we should be able to
get some miles in to reduce the 1255 miles we have left to sail. We have lots of
brilliant sunshine and the visibility is quite good at the moment, needless to
say Amanda is spending all her time when not tidying up looking for dolphins,
though all she has seen so far has been an amazing shooting star which seemd to
come in very slowly with a long brilliant white tail, before burning
up.
We have been in touch with some of our friends who
are doing the Jester Challenge to the States, so far 22 boats are on the way.
Some our going the way we are so we might meet up - who knows.
All the best to everyone
Richard and Amanda
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