Friday 29 Nov (Richie's log)
Those trade winds are proving to be quite illusive.
The problem is that a big low pressure system has plonked itself to the
south west of us, and it isn't budging. Does that remind you of a typical
English summer forecast? The weather is pretty similar here too, you
wouldn't think we're in the tropics!
Last night we were duped into thinking we might
have found the trade winds though. We were creaming along and our boat was
loving it! The wind had 'backed' (the direction the wind was coming from had
changed in an anticlockwise direction) from a southerly to a
south-easterly, allowing us to sail with the wind behind us westwards
as we are expecting to once we do catch the trade
winds.The boat was beatifully balanced and, sorry for using the same
term again, but I can think of no better way to describe it, we were
creaming along at a steady 9 knots - such a great feeling! The
phospheresence was astonishing too! Like brilliant, bright sparks in the dark
night, lighting up the water and spreading out from the hull to several metres
out on either side.
Today is a different story,unfortunately. Looking
at the weather report, that low is still firmly in place, and the wind is coming
from the south again which is where we need to go! We head in a south-westerly
direction. Free Spirit has a more jerky movement, we are constantly having to
adjust our sails to the changing force and direction of the wind and it is
grey and raining, but I still love it!
...fish! A mahi mahi, about 15lbs!
Alex has been promising us every day that 'today' is a good day for fishing
and we shall have fish for our dinner 'tonight'. Well finally he was right! And
the fish had perfect timing because it came when there was a lull in the wind
and we had no sail out- nice fish! Who's
hungry?