41:53.888N 24:47.235"W

SV Eleonora
Michael A. Andronov
Thu 5 Jul 2018 05:07
UTC & local time 0346.
 
Computer is trying to boost my spirit by telling that only 948 miles left to go...  I want to believe him,  but not so much for the number as for how it is going down since turned yesterday on more northerly !course...  However, everything has its price...   Since then -- the folllowing seas has also grown up  quite a bit...  making from the boat the 3D rollercoaster capsule... Everything is trying to fly outside the boat,  everything is trying to fly inside...
 
If I do not find the solution -- how to slow those motions down -- in the morning, after the dawn, then the forecast is -- I have to live with that as minimum 24 hours more...   Then I should have a stable boat again, but no wind...  No, you can not have everything at the same time... ;-)
 
Yesterday day has been  'routine' and interesting at the same time.  For the first time, as I remember it, the only thing which has been working as planned -- was the  weather. It was a sunny beautiful morning...  Do you know those late September or early October  days is Montreal ?  Yes, Indian Summer...  When you have a strange feeling that the summer came back ?   Yes, that is it!  That was my yesterday morning...  (  Oh, boy, where am I going ? It is colder and colder with each hour,  forget the days.... ).  With sun, with crispy air,  with refreshing  and waking up temperature!  ( Try to take the cold water shower on the deck ...  and you will know why I'm no so enthusiastic... )....
 
The wind started to change to W, then SW... and to pick up...  Ok, that is predicted...  Time to change the sails, as we are nearly on the run now...  and to put the pole for the yankee...
 
Small front sail going  down...  Easy...  But as I was inspecting the front of the boat -- I've noticed that the furling line for yankee has chaffed severely at one place... nearly gone...  It has probably happened on previous day, when I was  running with partially furled yankee for a while...  Hmm... first things first -- I have to close yankee if the line would allow...   It did...  and give up right at the last moment... But the sail was closed already...  It has been a  good line...  A new one, I would say...  On a positive side, now I have 2 peaces of that line... But it does not help at the moment...
Hopefully, when I splice it, it will still go through all blocks...
I have a repaired old furling line... So,  I put it back...  Fixed...
 
But now, the wind changed too much...  and it has picked up even more... There is no point to add yankee...  With only main with 1st reef -- we are doing 7.5 kts...  If I change the course to use yankee -- we would cross 42N too quickly...  
And frankly,  I've feel a bit tired to play with pole at that moment...
 
Ok, boat!  Can I go and rest a bit?  No... the generator took a nice wave, and decided -- enough,  that is it! 
Why everyone is so grumpy today?  It looks like I'm the onlry one on the board, who keeps going no matter what...
 
Ok,  negatiated a deal with a generator...  The batteries are charging now...  ( The sun disappeared an hour or so ago,  in middle layer greyish clouds... )
 
Working with weather,  fixing lines,  messages,   some cleaning,  cooking...  discussion with Chris Parker the weather and the route for next days... 
 
In short --  a regular, 'routine' day on board...
 
Why did I call it interesting above ?  I notice that I'm not treating the broken parts or equipment as 'something going wrong'... I'm treating that as 'normal sequence of events',   fixing right away if I can,  looking for ways around -- if I can not fix it... and preparing leave without broken part  when both previous options are not working...  This attitude of mine went to some new level --  the fact, that the part is broken -- does not bother me at all... None, nada... ( Michael, be carefull with that... there are parts, and there are parts... you know... watch what you are saying... )
 
Somehow, at the end of the day,  rethinking about what had happened during the day... brought the question(s) I started to hear more and more often... ' What are you plannig to achieve with that trip?  What is your life ? '    I do not know why those questions come back to the head today...  May be I'm just a little bit too tired...  
 
I'm actually... I would like some sleep, and day of sailing without 'events'... 
We will see...
 
Meantime -- as I'm typing the  message --  a new fenomen...  The fog... The  fog fog... Which all around the boat...  which is inside the boat...  Which is condensating inside the boat on everthing....  And now everything is wet....  EVERYTHING!!!  I've never seen something like that before... And, of course,  the wind is vanishing...  Just great...
 
That is all my news for now.
In short, - we are OK, we are moving forward!
 
Talk to you soon,
M.