Time Bandit - BLOG

34 23N 55 23W

1305 miles to go



Over the last few days I've been wondering about whales. On the way out to the Caribbean a pod of may 10 went past us doing 10 - 15 knots. This time, we're going the other way at 8 knots. That makes a closing speed enough to cause some problems which, as you may have read it did last night for the Hanse 370 Outer Limits.



For an hour we heard a freighter calling Outer Limits but with no response. Some time later we saw the western horizon lit up like daylight and we assumed it was the freighter, which we could see on AIS trying to tell Outer Limits to get out its path - which I thought was odd as avoidance would have been simple.



It transpired Outer Limits had hit a whale and were subsequently taken onboard the freighter and are now safely en route to Italy.



There are times when its good to be on our beige battleship. We're also on our way to practice our abandon ship routine!



The barometer is continuing to rise. We keep a chart pinned to the bulkhead and plot the pressure every 4 hours and its been steadily rising over the last day. Consequently, we have another beautiful day, 15 - 20 knots of wind and fetching along at 7.5 - 8+ knots. The high pressure has flattened the seas so less crashing and skin and fur flying!



Our route of choice, the southernmost of the fleet is still looking good and we're about 100 miles ahead of much of the fleet. The problems will arise as the forecast low appears and crosses our path. Those to the north will get more wind and be better positioned to ride the Azores High into Horta,



Time will tell. Our routing expert says we're cool so we'll hang in.



We tried a 3 hour watch pattern last night which was a bit easier but as time goes by we're getting more into the routine - just running out of episodes of Desert Island Discs.



We ran the first pub quiz last night which went down well. Lucie; if you're reading, please send 20 - 30 questions!



Tea is served so I'm outta here!





S&A