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Alcedo of Ryme - Blog 23. At Sea, 06.39.5S 106.06W



Tuesday, 8/03/16. This morning saw us 2000 miles from our destination, so we are having a special lunch and some wine with fizzy water to celebrate. The wind is vaguely trying to be a nice trade wind, but maybe we are not quite far enough South for it to be consistent. Some members of the crew have enjoyed winds from the SE with boat speeds of 8 to 10 knots, while others have endured dying winds from anywhere between S, SSW, ESE and even E, resulting in a frustrating lack of progress.

We have completely lost radio contact with the rest of the fleet, with only Paradise Found reasonably close to us, but we have been unable to raise her on the SSB. We have, however seen 2 ships in the last 24 hours, one without AIS that we could not identify. Can you believe it, the second was on a collision course last night with the whole of the Pacific to be fishing in. The boat had an unpronounceable name, almost certainly Japanese and it took us a long time to get a response from him on the VHF. Even then, we could not really communicate as his English was limited to direction and the fact that he had long lines out for tuna fishing. We did the safe thing and altered course to go well behind him, which took ages and meant the Skipper's wife did not do the mileage in her watch that she would have, very annoying!

Today is 10/10s cloud with some very wetting squalls and variable winds, but the crew are holding up remarkably well and the line is out for another fish. No one is holding their breath and we have a back up plan for supper.

Alcedo


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