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Starblazer - 10/05/2017 – A different day.



Yesterday the sun reappeared, for most of the day anyway. The wind, on the
other hand, reduced even further, barely reaching the heady heights of 8
knots! All this means one thing; we have been plodding along on the engine
since 1700, though we should have given in rather sooner. There was one
brief spell when the wind piped up a bit, from about 6 to 12, when a squall
came through yesterday afternoon. It was almost certainly part of a front
which has been lurking around and the wind veered from southeast (starboard
tack) to west (port tack). The mainsail went across easily however the
genoa was poled out to starboard and was too far off the wind to be helpful
so we rolled it away.

During the brief but heavy shower two boats, motoring on a parallel course
to us on our port side, quickly pulled out their sails and almost as quickly
put them away again as the squall passed! These two boats are now on our
starboard side, within 6 nM of us though they did get ahead of us over
night. When the wind is from dead ahead we cannot maintain 6 knots on the
engine unless we run on high, thirsty revs. With the wind off the bow our
mainsail can help drive us a little. If there is enough breeze it is also
worth pulling out the genoa, every little helps. Our aim is to arrive in
Bermuda on Friday afternoon, we need to average just over 5 knots.
Yesterday’s run was 128 nM, not fantastic but it would have been horrendous
without the use of the engine.

After ‘junk food Monday’, or ‘fast food Monday’ which sounds a little
healthier, yesterday’s dinner was chicken stir fry with five different
vegetables and ‘Straight to Wok’ noodles. I don’t have a wok on board and
usually use a very big saucepan however, as it was so calm, I used a frying
pan which has a larger base. Rather against the odds, I don’t think I
flicked anything on the floor.

Joyce


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