November 30th was a great, proper, trade wind sailing day. Blue sky, bright sun, a few small fluffy white clouds, sparkling azure blue sea. The wind was consistently easterly and we held our direct course easily with a good wind, in the upper teens, up the chuff. It was up and down, but quite strong, and, whilst we increased and decreased furls throughout the day, we had some furls in all day. Sea state varied, and thus motion. Sometimes swell from directly behind, varying in size, but other times it was more on the quarter, sometimes a bit confused, tossing us around a bit. Never a drop of water on deck though - this is an Amel! Another good days run, of 156.3 nm, getting us 155nm closer to Grenada, at an average speed of 6.5 knots.
Early in the morning we passed our half way point - 1100 nm travelled, 1096 nm to go. We have sailed every inch of the way. Same sail plan, with or without reefs, for 1073nm. We have been at sea for eight days.
Time to do a bit more than the daily resource monitoring:
No boat failures, no signs of chafe, and nothing seemingly wearing out on board.
Power management going well. We have used the engine for topping up the batteries for nine hours overall, so far, so averaging at around an hour per day. It is Starlink and the electric headsail furler that are the big draws.
We have been at sea for 16 days in November relying on Starlink for our weather information and ARC communications. The monthly Mobile Priority Data package has been more than adequate (but we only have it on intermittently, are not streaming, or using the internet, and David is carefully controlling device and app updates).
Our tank water has to last about a month - from Las Palmas to Grenada. We have used 325 litres and have 475 left. Three 20 litre Jerry cans and one solar shower remain untouched. We still have loads of bottled mineral water plus many tins of drink. That however is also to help us through the Caribbean, particularly the hurricane damaged islands. The salt water tap purchased at Southampton Boat Show, and fitted at anchor off Playa Papagayo, along with the Las Palmas salt water detergent, have been a great help in reducing proper washing up and serving general rinsing water needs.
Our fresh fruit supply is diminished, but should last until Grenada. We are almost out of fresh salad stuff, but still have a fair few fresh vegetables. Cape Verde shopping was not as good as we had hoped. But we’ve plenty of tins and jars to fall back on, and are taking a vitamin tablet each day. The fridges remain stocked full with lunch and supper protein, and we still have several months supply of UHT milk and general stores. The fresh bread from Cape Verde didn’t last long, but we have plenty of substitutes and David has had one bread making session.
Filled our second bag of rubbish today, and we should be able to get two more in the lazarette if need be.
The watch system is working well. Neither of us are having problems sleeping or getting up three hours later, in the middle of the night. We both rest during the day. Sometimes we both feel a bit tired, but no more than we did when we were working, or can do normally. Above all, we both feel very relaxed and happy, with plenty of personal reserve left.
In summation - we are well sorted for the second half of the trip. Another 6/7 days should not create a resource issue.