can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Lydia - Leg 2 Day 9 - The Wall & Sargasso Sneezing



Rather like marathon runners, this blog was in danger of hitting the wall of
no significant activity to report because today has been very
straightforward. However, there have been a few noteworthy events that mark
it out as different. One of which was that, after 3 or 4 days with a blank
plotter screen (other than the midday positions of our closest
competitors/fellow rally participants, which we enter as waypoints), we
actually 'saw' a merchant ship. According to the AIS she was bound for
London but sadly her closest point of approach was over 15 miles away so we
never saw her lights.

We continue to see lots of Sargasso weed - some of it in quite large clumps.
It appears to be very healthy and since we're too many days out for a Cape
Verde sniffle to materialise, the bouts of sneezing that have afflicted the
skipper and mate have now been put down to Sargasso pollen.

In this nice ENE 15kt wind, our progress has been steady and Lydia was top
of her league in terms of our 24hr average speed. The 1100 radio roundup
revealed that the US boats had dined on turkey breast as their Thanksgiving
meal and the Dutch/Brit banter between LILY & INFINITY B over the rules of
the fishing competition is heating up as we near our destination. On that
front the second fillet of the Dorado broke cover from the freezer at
lunchtime in the form of a deliciously hearty fish chowder courtesy of the
doctor. Perhaps the lines will go out again tomorrow.

Zooming out on the plotter shows that we now have some interesting bits of S
America like the mouth of the Amazon and French Guyana to the south of us.
Admittedly quite a long way away! Believe it or not there are buoys out here
that we need to look out for. We passed about 120 miles north of the Mid
Atlantic Buoy but our track should see us 'grazing' past the West Atlantic
one; a mere 50 miles or so away. Though we may be a little closer to land
now we've been seeing sea birds on an occasional basis throughout the trip.
Ironically, though we have a whale identification book but have seen none,
we have no bird reference book. So we're guessing that most of the birds are
a shearwater or fulmar variant. Yesterday we did spot a pair that where
predominantly white and had a longish tale. A sort of cross between a gannet
& a booby - let's call it a gabooby for the time being and hope they return.

With time on our hands we all spend varying proportions of our day in books.
In either paper, kindle or audiobook form, we have historical accounts of
the battle of Waterloo and of India vying with JK Rowling (in pseudonym
form) and Jeffry Archer's recent books together with an Andy McNabb
thriller and Portnoy's Complaint thrown into the mix. Rather than discussing
literature over our supper of Sargasso Schnitzel, you'll be pleased to hear
that between us we sorted out both the UK economy and the political future
of the nation. Tomorrow the world!

Just over 600 miles to go and the 2 Dec continues to feature as the fingers
crossed arrival date.


Previous | Next