N37:36:040 W38:17:230
Boat miles:- 1372
Miles to go:- 461
Well there is no rythmn and there is lots of boom
bang a bang as the waves come at you from all directions it seems at the moment in current conditions. We have 20-25kts
from the SW with gusts to 27 kts, seas are large and from the same
direction so every now and then pick up our stern and throw it sideways
causing significant rolling. However the sun is shining and we are mainly dry,
though the hissing sids keep catching us out unawares, both during the day and
the night - that water is getting chilly!
Last night was very lumpy, very breezy, very rolly
and very dark (the phrase pitch black springs to mind here) as we continue head
eastwards in strong winds. Vanessa was in charge and did sterling work and
should be promoted very soon. Thankfully we had no rain or squalls last night,
though we were very well prepared with plastic bags all over the place to keep
things dry - the cockpit is quite exposed at sea. Watery sunshine at dawn saw
the winds ease a little as a pod of dolphins checked us out and had a little
play in the bow wave before heading off to where-ever they go, but the seas
continue to be large and rolly.
We managed to fix the wind speed indicator and saw
gusts to 28kts most of the night and into much of this morning.
For the mathematically minded of you Andromeda
yesterday passed the 11/16 ths, 2/3rds, and 70% marks.
When I crashed into the sink the other day I was
pretty much grounded for a while until the pain wore off and I could get around
the boat once more. Now I can do more it looks as though I may well have cracked
a rib in the incident, as there are times when I get sharp pain from the area
when doing some tasks, such as changing the running back-stay, reefing the
mizzen, tidying lines, going into the fridge etc. Sleeping is a challenge
in terms of finding a comfortable position as laying on my sides, either
one, is not very nice. And sneezing is a definite no no - once was enough,
I'm dreading the usual three in a row! Not much we can do about it so we will
continue to sail conservatively and not press either Andromeda or ourselves too
much over coming days.
Yesterday was one of our 23 hour days - as we get
closer to Europe we need to change our time zones. The Caribbean is UTC -4,
Bermuda is UTC -3 (UTC = GMT, also known as Zulu), and the Azores is UTC. We
have had 2 such days on the crossing as we slowly align our time to European
time. Fun eh!
More in due course........
Andrew & Susan
S/V Andromeda
a.k.a. Dncing with Waves