Current Position  56:46.29N 29:15.85W

wind 4 Kn

water temperature 6.6 degrees

barometer reading 1021 and rising.

 

Well from the stats above you can see that the weather is nice and has been good to us since we left Greenland.

The water is warm at 6.6 degrees, we should really go for a swim again as there’s no further fear of not surviving the colder Artic waters if one was to take an intentional or un-intentional dip!  it’s probably warmer here than at home.

Mind you We still need 2 layers of clothing on under the sleeping bag (rather than the 3 we have been used to), why the Skipper refuses to turn on the heater is beyond me, something about being brought up under the World War ration book conduct code, but wasn’t that over 100 years ago now?

Anyway Freeze On old Chap!

With a retired FCA orderly now turned liar and the others with navy and army backgrounds the crew aren’t for turning Sir!

 

We had plenty of wind in the last few days to sail constantly but last night and for today the wind died to 4 knots which has us lolling about and we don’t do lolling very well! So on with the Donkey and we have been gliding along flat calm waters at 6 knots all night. As the weather was so settled last night we changed the watch system to one man up at a time, instead of the normal two, so we all had a good night’s sleep.

 

Thankfully the wind is due to arrive after today and we have positioned ourselves above the 56N Latitude line (Kinsale being below that @ 51N)  so that we stay in the wind which is due from the North and veering to the East as the depression moves in and allows us to have a favourable angle on the winds coming into the Irish coast. We are receiving constant weather updates by way of GRIB files through the sat phone which show the basics needed, but also Dermot’s friend Burke Corbett has been a great help advising on where we position the boat to gain best advantage of the winds.

 

  Our (DERMO’S) fishing expedition was cut short last night as we hooked a Gull! Tim Severin used to eat these birds on his Brendan Voyage and we know them not to be great to eat. The fisherman’s theory was that as he hadn’t caught any sort of species under the water to date that he’d set a trap for the two winged gliders and hey presto!

In fact what happened was the gull got it’s wing caught in the line at is lay on the surface behind the boat and he flew away once the trauma of untangling him was over.

 

I hope Bertha didn’t cause too much damage as it passed through. This was the greatest fear we had of the trip as we departed the Greenland shores.

Winds at the bottom of Greenland are often very nasty as they squeeze around Cape Farvel and head for Labrador and the Canadian coast, we would have been delayed a few days rather than experience some of those heavy duty winds.

Today with light winds due we hope to fly our Spinnaker to carry us along rather than the engine which would be wonderful.