11:47.39N 56:7.30W
0715GMT, Saturday 2nd Dec 2023.
One thing has struck me on this voyage is the scarcity of all marine animals that we’ve seen when compared to my previous ARC crossing in 2019. On that voyage, we had dolphins nearly every day, either popping by for a quick “Hello”, or more usually a bit of playtime on the bow wave. On one occasion, a large pod stayed for well over an hour, taking turns to surf or simply undertake high-speed manoeuvres from all angles under the yacht. Sadly on this trip, we’ve only seen these joyous creatures a couple of times. We’ve also not seen any whales on this trip, with two sighted on the last.
In addition, sea birds have been sighted in a different manner. We’ve had the odd bird pass by every day, including the egret that perched on our solar panels for half a day for a rest. However during my last trip, there were many more birds 300 to 400 miles from land on each side of the Atlantic, but hardly any in the middle 1,000 miles or so. Now we’re only 300NM from land, I would expect to be seeing more and more birds, but not so yet. There may be more closer in to the Caribbean we get - let’s hope so!
Due to the loss of all the fishing tackle early on in my first crossing, I can’t say much about the fish. On this crossing, apart from a cracking few days early on in the trip from Mindelo, we’ve not had a bite for over a week! In the general chit-chat between the ARC fleet, there seems to be a general view that fishing has not been that successful this season, so if that’s the case, then where have all the fish gone?
It’s difficult to speculate why this might be while sat out here, but talk of rising sea temperatures and some very strange weather patterns occurring all over the world are becoming more commonly reported. We have the global COP conference ongoing in Dubai, where the political and business leaders sit, pontificate and have a general jolly at their tax-payers expense, while our planet’s climate has seemingly gone beyond the point of no return. They can talk about and set targets to reduce emissions, try to limit the global temperature rise and reduce waste and the impact humans have on our flora and fauna all about us, but after they go back home, what plans do they actually carry through? Or do the individual lobby groups get to work and manage to undermine everything good that COP might have done to benefit the planet. Somehow they need to find a way and then convince humanity to change their behaviour drastically. Sadly, as our onward march of progress steamrollers onward, I don’t see a leader or politician willing or able to make those arguments that can make the changes in humankind that are so desperately required to limit the impact that climate change will have on our fish, dolphins, whales and birds.
Sorry I’ve erred into politics. I’m pleased to say that our progress has been good these last few days with the trade winds having found their puff at last (again, is climate change having an effect on these usually reliable winds?). We’ve picked up some pace and are currently being pushed along at 7.5kts with 18 to 21kts of wind from our starboard quarter. RB seems to enjoy these conditions, as the Atlantic swell lifts her gently from the stern and she briefly accelerates down into the trough. The moon is now at its half phase, and we have a lot of clouds scooting by. Luckily none of these are looking too squally or threatening.
Photos below:
1. Scooting along towards sunset.
2. Ed did the noon sun sight yesterday and like mine, it wasn’t that accurate. We’ll have another crack at it again today.
3. Another shot of the sun setting
4. A typical squall cloud - glad I’m not under that one, as it’s gonna be wet!!
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