Cosmic Dancer V - Day 6 - The butter has melted!
There is an old nautical saying which says if you want to get to the Americas you should "head south until the butter melts and then turn west". Like so many of these old sayings, there is a sound factual basis to this advice. By sailing south until you reach the tropics you get into the North Easterly trade winds and from there a course of west will generally keep you
in these favourable trade winds until you reach the West Indies.
We are not carrying any butter on Cosmic Dancer. but the margarine was looking distinctly "sticky" yesterday so we made the decision to alter course to 270 and head direct for St Lucia on a great circle route!!
Of Course the modern mariner does not have to rely solely on such sayings any more. Even on the smallest of yachts, affordable satellite communications mean that up to date weather forecasts, synoptic charts, satellite imagery and GRIB files are no more than a few mouse clicks away.
Our decision to turn West when we did was based on our tracking and analysis of the GRIB files and synoptic charts over the preceding 4 or 5 days. However, it is interesting to note that in the end our actual turning point was no more than a hundred or so miles from the 20N 30W point that has for hundreds of years been regarded as the optimal turning point for sailing vessels bound for the West Indies. One cannot help but reflect that the mariners of old had an awful lot of knowledge encapsulated in their sayings and that in their own way they were every bit as good at observing wind and weather patterns as we are now with all our modern sophisticated electronic aids.
Now that we are heading west the winds and swell appear to have stabilised. Our daily distances haven't significantly altered - we are still averaging between 150 and 160 miles per day - but the effort needed to achieve those miles has decreased. At last the seas are predictable enough that we can hand over the task of steering to the autopilot for an hour or so without running the risk of a crash gybe or worse. This has given us a welcome break from hand steering for 24 hours today, something that as a 2 handed crew we are heartily glad of - long may these winds continue!!
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