Albatross - YB Connect Message from Fernando Assens

Nov 29 - 10th Day at Sea

Al is well. We are 1,574 miles from St Lucia, and Las Palmas is 1,103 miles behind us. Today we sailed about 90 miles.

This year winds have been unusually light. On the advice of Commander, we took a northern route, initially with the intention to go south after five days, but with an unusual low pressure front south of us, the trade winds developed much further south than normal, which has us still quite a bit north of the normal route and, ironically, in very light winds for several days. Forecast is for winds to improve by the end of tomorrow.

In hindsight I wish we had taken the southern route: Columbus route. For those of you interested in history, the reason no ship had successfully crossed the Atlantic until 1492, was because of the route they chose. All the expeditions bound west before Columbus were on the northern route, leaving from the Azores, which has westerly winds (blowing from the west). Ships at the time had mainly a square rig, and it was hard for them to tack against the wind. Hence all explorations sailed against the wind, to ensure that the wind on their back would take them home at the end of their trip. But all those who tried to cross on the northern route were unable to make headway and had to turn back.

Columbus, who in the 1470s worked as a sugar buyer for a Genoese family, knew that the south Atlantic had easterly winds in the latitudes of the Canaries, and westerlies to the north, which would make a return trip feasible.

Columbus trip was under the patronage of my namesake, King Fernando of Aragon, the region were I am originally from, which today is Catalonia. One more reason, why it would have been neat to take the southern route!

Life on board goes on smoothly. The light weather allowed us to do some cleaning, laundry, food inventory, and get better sleep.

Yesterday Lolo sighted a whale swimming south crossing our bow and today we saw a large green turtle bobbing along the boat.
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Transmitted by Fernando Assens using YB Connect (www.ybtracking.com)