Resolute of Thames - 4,000nm and Slowing Down?

Whilst not directly related to the ARC we had a small celebration this morning. The log tells us that we have now covered 4,000nm since leaving Stavanger (Norway) back in May. The GPS slightly took the edge off it by telling us that our average speed overall has been a disappointing 5.3knts.

Returning to the here and now the GPS would also like to tell you all that we have had a slower day today. With a little over 200nm to go and a welcome party scheduled for Saturday this is a tad frustrating (for us not the GPS). The wind dropped from a steady NE 5 to something that varied between ENE and NE 2-4 during yesterday morning and remained so until last night when it picked up slowly and is now back to a respectable NE 5. On the plus side the seas are now flatter so we are not rolling. However, the confidence in our hitherto steady, sure easy progress has taken a knock and compared with the boats running under main and head sails or with fancy colourful cruising chutes, spinnakers or even the odd para-sailor and crew in abundance to fiddle with ropes we are, I guess, looking decidedly lazy. We are placing our hope in the ARC forecast which promises N or NE 4-5 this morning and a good solid N or NE 5 this afternoon. The alternative forecast, based on the downloadable grib files we normally use, sees the wind reducing again. To be certain that we get the ARC weather I have deleted the grib files from the computer and paced a printed copy of the ARC forecast in the cockpit for the Wind Gods to read. After all there are free G&Ts with our names on them at stake here - not to mention the pride of Resolute. My other hope is that once the various corrections are applied to the yellow brick positions our showing might improve. But as Gill points out a corrected time that gets us metaphorically into Mindelo before the party is of no use in securing G&Ts if we physically arrive after the party.