7/25: Day 2, 1417 UTC. We finally left the dock a little before noon Thur. The first 24 hrs we made about 98 nm…surprisingly good since it was very calm in front of and behind the island. I motored several hours to get out of the wind shadow. I prefer sailing, but 1/2 kt of boat speed is just not enough! We sailed off and on around the E end of Sao Miguel, then pointed N as much as possible.
The best way to catch wind is to sail directly N until latitude 45 N, then turn NW toward England. We had to go a bit E on a close reach until wind backed west and we were able to point N. We made a nice easy 5kts much of Friday thru Sat morning. About noon the wind started to increase to 18-22 kts apparent.
Now we are making 7 kts under 2nd reef mainsail, staysail, and 20% reefed genoa. Seas are picking up 1-2 m and it’s getting harder to move around. Mal de mere has visited the boat. Lucky it was so calm to start as the crew is getting acclimated. Now it’s getting rougher we are re-acclimating. In other words, the grand meals we hoped for with all our lovely, fresh Azorean ingredients are not being made. That’s the catch 22 of a sea voyage; ingredients are best when you are able to cook them, let alone eat and enjoy them. The ham, cheese and rolls are coming in very handy though.
Yesterday a freighter was on a collision course. Madeleine and Simone were pretty excited to hear me call them on the radio and ask them to change course. The man on watch sounded Russian with that deadpan Russian drawl. Pretty routine, and I love my AIS. It doesn’t take much to entertain one out here, even only two days out.
Nice bioluminescense at night. A few birds, otherwise just water, clouds, stars, sun. Hoping for fish and whales, except I hope I don’t hit another one!
Lat 41.224222 Lon -23.985622