After exactly 24 hours of motoring, the Wild Goose crew demanded action despite the light and variable winds, and at 1600 the decision was made to take drastic action. The smell of diesel fumes and the artificial sounds of man-made propulsion had to go. The drifter was dug from deep in the lazarette storage locker, under the spare docklines, under the cleaning buckets and life preservers, the dinghy seat, fire buckets, flare boxes and other gear where it has been nestled quietly for 2 years without use. The drifter is a light, spinnaker weight sail that "hanks on" to the spare headstay on Wild Goose. It's a beautiful sail and the new wide angle "GoPro" camera captures its color. The videos, much to large to upload by satellite, are especially sharp.
It is pulling us along at around 4 knots in 5-8 knot variable winds, so it's doing its job! We have all now changed our clocks to UTC time, +3 hours from Bermuda time, so the sun is setting late, at around 10:00 PM, or 2200. Some of us are "sleeping in" until noon, an unheard of luxury.
Sailing on. We may be 950 miles away, but Wild Goose feels the pull of Horta.