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Webster - A day nearer Bermuda



Monday 5th May 2014. Position at noon 23 24'N 64 32'W

We motored much of last night with little if any wind. We came across a couple of ARC boats which we could see on AIS but otherwise no real activity during the night, although the stars were amazing plus many spectacular shooting stars. Igor and I had eaten most of a packet of Bourbon biscuits on our watch which Neal and Dave thought was a tad greedy but we then noticed empty packets of Snickers bars all over the place, so that evened the score.

Just before day break there was a puff of wind on my neck so up with the sails and by the time Dave and Neal came on deck at 7am we were sailing in 10 knts SW. This built through the morning and having dreaded the prospect of little wind all day here we were in 15-20 knots and making between 7 and 8 knots consistently, sometimes more. A lovely day too.

I sat for 10 minutes this morning awaiting the SSB net at 0930 local time. Neal came down below to watch how it all worked. There was nothing on ARC 4B channel, the designated channel only the sound of interference which was a bit disappointing given how clear it had been yesterday. It was only after decrying SSB and its inconsistency that I realised that the net was at 0830 so the reason there was no traffic to hear was because there wasn't any, it had been and gone. Oh dear.....need more sleep maybe!

The noon day position gave us a 24 hour trip of 132nm, nowhere near as good as yesterday but it had been very light so can't complain too much.

We saw a Stormy Petrel today, have not seen one before. A beautiful bird which looked like a large hawk to my eye. It must have had an eye on the chicken and avocado wraps we had for lunch - no chance.

Late afternoon the wind started to veer to the west and we had to drop the spinnaker pole to maintain a course to Bermuda. The digital compass on the pilot differs in opinion on direction with the ships compasses which is a bit disconcerting so there was a debate about which one is correct or are they all wrong. After all, we are approaching the famed Bermuda Triangle and compasses have been known to go mad in this area, or is it their users perhaps?

Just as we were preparing dinner ( spaghetti bolognese with stewing steak) the promised rain squalls arrived with a vengeance. We could see the rain rapidly approaching across the water and some horrid looking black clouds low in the sky. We immediately put in a reef in the main and a couple of rolls in the jib for good measure which was a good job as it blew 30 knots for a short while whilst throwing it down with rain. Its the first time I have worn full wet weather gear since December.

I am informed that the Treacle Miners amongst us are looking forward to arriving in Bermuda given their geographical survey and mineral mining reports which suggest a rich vein of tungsten in the island geology which may lead to a rich deposit of treacle. We are all very excited about this prospect which, if found to be true, may lead to another Klondyke treacle rush. By this time next year we could all be millionaires, Rodney!

Meanwhile, we keep taking the tablets........

The wind has now come round to the north, bang on he nose and has dropped considerably. We shall motor a bit and see if it veers further to he east as predicted to give us some semblance of an angle to sail.


Charlie

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