Excitement last night. We saw the first evidence of other human existence in 3 days when a supertanker crossed about half a mile ahead, just before dawn. We seem to have been bowling along for days with 20-28 Kts right from behind. We are surfing along down some very big waves making a steady 8-9 kts and a peak so far of 13.68 scored by the student body. I managed 13.2 and Bob is still trying to break 13kts. The sea state is confused with the remnants of the northerly swell and some west going waves caused by this wind. We are rolling a bit which makes cooking (and sleeping) a little trying, but I think the Badger would be a little ambitious and probably would not increase our speed. The current sail plan of 2 slabs in the main and the genoa reefed to the second mark gives us almost equal sized sails with the genoa poled out to windward we are well placed to respond quickly to reduce sail should we encounter any squalls. The wind is set to rise to 30-35 Kts over the next couple of days so we shall be reducing still further.
The favoured route for the ARC is to head south from the Canaries towards the Cape Verde islands "until the butter melts" and then turn right to pick up the trade winds at about 15N. This route is longer by 300 miles but more comfortable. The met we had leaving Canaries was that we could expect the favourable Easterlies along the (shorter) northern Great Circle route after a couple of uncomfortable days upwind and that the Southerly route was likely to have rather lighter winds of less than 10Kts. So far the prediction has proved correct, at least in the north, but we wait to see what lies beyond the strong easterlies we expect at the end of the week. The GRIB we have shows little in the south, but we may duck south on starboard gybe to escape the strong winds sooner as this system seems to be moving north. Hopefully we may catch some trade wind sailing after that.
We passed 500 miles run just before midnight and have now done 580 miles - 185 miles in the last 24 hours. We have also passed the 25W meridian so happy with our progress, but it is quickly becoming apparent what a huge ocean this is and the sheer might of the ocean, the waves and the big skies are all marvellous to behold. Hats off to our pal Charlie Pitcher who rowed across single handed last year and is set to do so again next year in a new boat I saw being prepared and finished by Mike Wood in Burnham just before we left. Huge respect! We also constantly feel in awe of the navigators of old who set out in leaky wooden boats with no met and no knowledge of what lay beyond the horizon. However such philosophical thoughts are pushed to the background by the necessities of keeping the boat going and keeping her clean and tidy. No time yet for fishing or reading - just as well as I have found that all the books I downloaded to my Kindle for the journey have been archived for some inexplicable reason and I need a WiFi connection to access them - Doh! (I may have been a bloky and paid insufficient attention to the instructions) Never mind I have Emma Cannon's new book to proof read and perhaps do a medical report - or maybe not - I think fishing sounds more fun.