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

Menu

Lexington - Latest News from Lexington



We get position reports each day emailed to us from World Cruising. Each boat has a locator on it called a Yellow Brick which transmits to the satellite our position at the same time each day. The World Cruising Club then tabulates all the data and sends it out by email to each of the boats. One of the statistics that they keep is called 'velocity made good'. This is the velocity or speed you're making to your target location. For example, when we were heading South and not going very much West then the velocity made good to the Western target would be low. Now that we've been able to turn towards the West our course is directly to target. Therefore all of our progress, i.e., our speed is made towards the target therefore our velocity made good is higher. If you look at the tracking site on www.worldcruising.com, you will probably see divergent paths to get to the trade winds but most boats will start converging on a course along the parallel of 9 south or 10 south. That is they will be heading west without making much way north or south. There will be some variation but those are the sailing directions to get there.
We are sailing along with our asymmetrical spinnaker off the starboard (right) bow. It is a beautiful sight. We are doing 6.5 to 7.5 knots of boat speed. Only problem is that we have 2,385 miles left to go. It will be amazing what crazy posts I will come up with over all that distance.
I hooked up the salt water deck wash to a garden hose and put it thru a window into the shower. I soaped up real well and then had a nice long salt water rinse to help cool off. I then had a quick fresh water rinse. It was a long run for a short slide but I feel very clean, not sticky, do not stink and I am back to my handsome self. Interesting tidbit is that nobody else wanted to do the same even after I had it all set up for them. They have probably gotten used to their smell. Just joking, you do not have to have a lot of water to be somewhat clean and not smell. On top of that we do have a water maker. It takes diesel fuel to run the generator to run the water maker but it is nice. You do not want to be wasteful but it is nice to know that water can be made. Boats without water makers use about 7 liters per person per day while boats with use about 15. Statistics show boats without water makers have a harder time getting crew. You would have to be careful with that data since boats without water makers probably do not want as many crew to use up their water. Might work both ways.
That is enough rambling. Best wishes to those of you who have a sick or recovering loved one. I have a few friends that qualify. Bob

Previous | Next