Day 6: Motorin'

Buoy 'N Sea
Phil and Trish Littman
Sat 24 Nov 2007 21:16
25:56.2N, 70:47.9W
 
Saturday, November 24th
We're finally caught up with the blog. Our coordinates reflect our recorded Noon time position.
 
With winds still too light to sail in, we're still motoring east as far as possible. We heard a very favorable weather report from Chris Parker on single side band that predicts winds ENE 15-20 kts on Sunday. Wind speeds may increase to 20-25 with gusts upt o 30kts on Monday. But it looks very good that we'll be able to drop in to the 65th parallel and on to St. Martin's in about 6 days.
 
We had wraps for lunch again.
 
Last night we had a full moon. The moon is also setting much later now, closer to 5:30AM. This means that night time is still pretty bright but we do miss seeing a dark sky and very bright stars.
 
Running the motor for 2 1/2 days straight requires that we refuel and check the engine periodically.
 
Steve, Alex and Phil retrieve gas canisters from the fore deck.
 
Captain Steve wants to use the fuel on the bow first, in order to lighten the bow and reduce the force of boat crashing through the waves. After that fuel is used up, we'll start emptying canisters on our starboard which will be the low side on port tack, which is what we'll be on for most of the rest of the trip.
 
We had a front pass through from the north, which brought scattered rain showers and a rainbow. Camera problems (data cables going missing) prevent us from sharing the rainbow pics with you until after the trip. We're using another camera now.
 
We don't see many ships anymore. And the one's we do see aren't close to us.