21nd June Windy day and fastsail 23rd June

Kirofbrixham
Tue 22 Jun 2010 13:25
Our fuel conservation measures seem to have worked well we are still able to motor for a couple of hours a day whilst charging the batteries. Its quite difficult to be so strict with yourself but there is no other way. A yacht with out fuel has eventually lost all its electronic functions including GPS, Navigation lights and fridge. There are no fuel stations out here and if you saw a ship they may not be happy to stop these days. Its a very strange feeling knowing the is absolutely nothing one can do except wait for wind. The weather has control.
 
Today 22nd June we got some long awaited wind. Which started about 0200 hrs whilst I was on watch. Quite amazing to feel the boat start to move almost like magic. Very soon we were up to 5kts and I am still hand steering, which is great for short periods but not prolonged, very tiring. I got the self steering clicked in and just sat back enjoyed the ride. Whether its the fact that we got the wind first the sea was flat apart from a wind wave on it and KIR was just flying along at 6.5 kts almost over the tops of the waves.
 
Tonight the wind has eased and we are hoping that it does not die on us as has happened many times before. Tomorrow we have to reach a position from theoretically which we could motor to St Marys in the Scillies Isles should there be no wind. This represents us having control over where we go as we have enough fuel at this moment for some one hundred miles to go. If the wind stops we cannot motor to port to fill up they are all to far away.
 
We have had a couple of silly minutes recently such as the dividing of the last lettuce leaf. There is photographic evidence of this event which I will add later. Also dividing the last apple but to be fair we have been dividing them for a while as they are so large. They are Canadian Russets bought in Horta Faial.
 
Bread making has improved with our third loaf yesterday, just glad I bought extra gas in Horta.
 
As part of our entry into the English Channel we have been checking the charts for the best latitude to enter to take us to Dartmouth or to Falmouth if we need to refuel. Currently we are doing 7kts on a course of 078 True in a very flat sea almost to good to believe after the calms we have had.
At 1330 hrs our position is '49:17.00N 10:17.15W'