Day 22
leeonsea
Lee Price
Mon 2 Jun 2008 16:56
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N39.25.42 W039.33.20
Wind 10kts Heading 100T
Had a rather splendid chat with 'Iceeny' last night
on the SSB Radio Telephone. They'd offered to relay a weather forecast to
another boat suffering with comunication issues to Herb, so I dropped down to
their frequency to ask a weather related question. Not to bore you but they were
ahead of me reporting N winds where I had E winds and I wanted to converse to
see if they too had suffered E winds and therefore I should expect my wind to
back more N too. I lost a bit of northing yesterday and my favourable current
had finally turned against me. As it was, my E wind continued to veer and by
midnight was SE, by morning was S and I tacked.
Anywayz
Turns out their a family of 4 on a Warrior 40, kids
of 11 and 9, what a way to spend your childhood, great! Quite a nice boat on the
last leg of a 3 year trans Atlantic circuit heading for, ultimatly, Bristol via
the Azores and Ireland. They are going to Flores in the Azores on high
recomendation of friends who state it must be seen.
So, I'm still heading for Horta, although the
temptation to bypass is quite great and I did consider it being that Flores is a
day closer, but I want a stable platform to assend my mast and fix my Nav light
and theres only an anchorage at Flores. Also, I crave a bit of dirty
civilisation, real internet and people to look at, cafe bars and
chocolate.
I will stop in Flores though on route to the UK,
it's only a day sail NW so it's practically on the way and if it's as beautiful
as they say it'll be worth it. When I get to Horta, I'll take time to call them
up and see what they thought of it. It gives a structure to the week I was going
to spend in the Azores and means I can save a bit on Marina fees.
What a joyful, unpredictably nice way to spend your
life this 'cruising about a bit' is.
Yesterday was slow progress, little breeze at
10kts/ less, making only 2-3ks but this was a: up and down the Longitude with
the wind in the E b: against the Azores current which I entered late afternoon
having had it with me much of the day. So despite clocking 81nm I only made 70nm
E bound. 11miles going nowhere at 2-3kts is a might fustrating.
To listen to Herb you'd think the whole Atlantic had gone to sleep, all
across, north to south, east to west boats are complaining about a lack of wind,
though one boat just south of Rhode Island suffered a 40kt squall in the middle
of the night.
Today, at dawn, the motor went on and I motorsailed
much of the morning at about 4kts, the current still pushing against me and
is more NE and stronger than the charts might suggest, she seems happy to motor
sail, just not motor at any great speed on her own, I guess a 10 ton boat is too
much for a 26yr old 40hp engine. At least today I'm heading in
the right direction. If things don't improve markedly over the next couple of
days though, milage wise, I'm going to be out here another week or 6 days at
least. Plus I'm down to my last 80ltrs of diesel (2/3rds used). I think things
are improving slightly thought this afternoon, the current might be weakening
slightly and the wind is strengthening a little, tiny almost inperceptable
changes but for now I'm making just 4kts under sail alone.
I spied a Sail on the horizon this afternoon, tried
to raise them on the radio but no luck, turns out they we're westbound and would
you belive that we we're on a collision course! it's the only sailboat I've seen
and only the 6th boat I've seen in 22 days and would you know it we had to
avoid each other, crazy. Despite them being the standon vessal, they moved,
which confussed me a bit but then they we're french ;o) We we're close
enough as we passed to utter a few plesentries and they asked where I was
headed, goodafternoon to you, all that guff, quite funny when you consider where
we are.
The one big fear I had about crossing the Atlantic
was a bad storm, I never considered for a moment a bad calm spell would cause
just as much a problem but for different reasons. Lunch has become a bit bland,
I ran out of bread a couple of days ago so it consists of ketchup on a pringle
and a cold frankferta and I've run out of coffee which mean I'll get a bad
headache before I reach Horta, foolishness to have left without enough coffee, a
higher crimb than to have left, as I have done, without T-bags.
HeyHo and WhatNot, nothing to be done. Absolutley
beautiful weather this past couple of days, had I have been in port the light
breeze would have been just the ticket. The sun has continued to shine though so
mood is generally good.
L.
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