Progress so far
Sonar
Ray
Sat 17 Oct 2009 23:19
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At last we have had the time to sort out the email
system over the Iridium phone so here is an update of our progress so far
in sailing towards the Canary Isles.
First some (boring) statistics ...
We left Gibraltar at 15:15 (BST) on Thursday
(15 October) and so we have been going for about 55 hours as I write this. So
far we have logged 300 Nm giving an average speed of 5.6 Kts. We are currently
about 100 Nm due west of Casablanca reaching in a very favourable north westerly
force 3/4 wind. Occassionaly reaching 7+ Kts but mostly 6-6.5 Kts. We have about
475 Nm still to go to our intended destination at the Southern end of Tenerife.
If we can keep up this pace, we will only need another 85 hours. We are
already well over 1/3rd of the way.
We have certainly learned a lot so far. Everyone we
spoke to in Gibraltar confirmed that the best time to leave heading west out of
the Straits was at HW+3hrs. But nobody stressed how imprtant it was to sail very
close in shore. It took us about 1/2 an hour to realise that 1.5 miles
offshore was not the place to be. We had at least a 3Kt current
against us out there but close in shore (<400 metres!) there was a 3 Kt
current with us. So more by luck than judgement we managed to get past Tarifa
easily enough before it got dark. Then we had a close encounter in the dark with
what we believe were at least 5 large naval vessels engaged in some excercise or
other. None of them displayed any AIS and they were creeping around,
sometimes at only 5 or 10 Kts on unpredictable courses. One passed close by and
then turned round and came back again. It kept us on our toes for an hour or
more.
After all the excitment of escaping from the
clutches of the Mediterranean the wide open spaces off the NW coast of
Africa seem very different. We have not seen another vessel all day and
only 2 far off lights last night. It seems very strange (and a bit scary)
to be charging along at 7.5 Knts into inky blackness where one cannot even see
the state of the sea or the bow of the boat. The stars, the Milky Way, the
Sunrises/Sunsets are just spectacular - although the moon has been conspicuous
by her abscence for the last 2 nights.
At noon local time today John checked the
calibration of the GPS with his sextant thingy. Barrack Obama can sleep easy now
as it is apparantly correct to within observational error (about 3
miles).
We had fresh fish for dinner last night as John
caught what we think was a small tuna just in time for our evening meal. Anyway,
whatever it was, it tasted good. He is very proud of the fact that he only
baited the hook with a short piece of (used) white insulating tape. He has now
produced a new lure which is again made from (new) white insulating tape cut out
to look fish shaped and even has an eye drawn on each side with a biro. He
thinks the tuna will find it irresistable.
The rest oif our crew - Big Bertha (the cruising
chute) and Monty (the wind vane steering) are both performing their duties
concientiously. However, Big Bertha can be difficult to control if she is
allowed to play in the stronger winds for too long and smells funny when left in
her damp bag for too long.
If this blog update works OK over this steam driven
Iridium phone system then it will be Johns turn to report on our adventures next
time.
Ray & John,
AKA Magellan and
Columbus
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