This has been another rough day. The Trade Winds have blown consistently at 080 degrees, blowing around 25 knots, give or take the gusts and lulls. No squalls though. The seas have been big. Probably a 3m swell, and quite disturbed. They push the boat this way and that, in several dimensions, and, if combined with a gust, she can rather sheer off and surf in the wrong direction. But the auto pilot copes well and she comes back on course. (We have been running on the old auto pilot today to give the new one a rest).
It’s been a really really bright day. As they say at home, the sun easily knocks a force off the wind…….. the air is comfortingly warm, the sun full and bright, and the sea the most beautiful blue. It sparkles in the sunlight and the white caps glisten. We may be living in an all blue world, but it is certainly a vibrant one. This has to be Nature at its most raw. It is certainly incredibly majestic and awe inspiring. Our life is the epitome of self reliance and independence at the moment. I can’t say absolute freedom though, as Nature’s clockwise North Atlantic currents and winds are certainly currently controlling our direction of travel. I have read that crossing the Atlantic makes you realise how inconspicuous each of us is. I disagree. I don’t think Nature, or the Planet, are even noticing that we are here. We are less than inconspicuous whilst Nature just carries on doing her stuff.
Frances Louise continues on in a very determined manner, with minimal interference/assistance from us. She has dedicated herself to the crossing, concentrating hard. She is really demonstrating what she is made of. We are heavily reefed as we don’t want any breakages. That’s slower, and we are probably falling back down the fleet, but it’s safer. Despite that she achieved a Personal Best with a days run of 162 nm bringing us 158.8nm closer to Grenada. Bless her. She seems to be loving the whole thing as much as we are.
Oh, and we saw a tanker. It passed us two miles away during lunch time, the first vessel we have seen for ten days.