Abraxas 3 - Light winds and a big swell

The sun couldn't be brighter, the water couldn't be clearer or warmer, so it should really have been a perfect day for sailing. However there has been to sets of swell coming in from almost opposite directions with largest being 1.5 meters or close to it. So with winds of anything between 3-9 knots coming in from all the wrong angles we have been motoring along in a fuel efficient speed of 6 knots since early morning. We are hoping for more winds in the coming days, as our 350 litres of fuel will not last for many more days like this.

Although sailing highlights have been few today, except for a couple gybes in the dark night, we have passed to important milestones today. We have passed both the halfway mark of 1.043 nautical miles sailed out of 2.086, and this evening we also passed the 1.000 miles left to Saint Lucia mark. We have also made the day longer by turning our clocks back two hours in order to adjust our night watches better to the sunset and sunrise. As we travel due west we have more or less been 15 minutes out of sync for each day, and this morning the sunrise in Cap Verde time that we have been using so far was as late as 07:50. Tomorrow the sunrise will be more or less precisely 06:00 so both the watch going of and coming on will be able to enjoy the wonderful colours we get almost every morning out here at sea.

We tried our luck with the fishing rod today, but we only noticed one of the seabirds looking interested. By the way, do anyone understand how these birds can live here, literally a thousand mile from land (yes, I do understand that they can swim, but wouldn't it be much easier for them to fly just 10-20 miles offshore?).

Best regards and thanks for following us
Team Abraxas