13:00 UTC Thursday Nov. 12, 2015Position: 19.436688N, 22.372331W
STILL NO TUNA!!
we covered 136.7.3nm in the last 24 hours (avg. 5.967kt), our worst day so far.
Reason 1: the wind dropped to below 20knot at nightfall last night. We had expected that to happen sooner and had hoped to get the gennaker up all day, but winds were too strong. As the wind dropped it was dark, not a good time to raise a gennaker on an unknown boat for the first time in your life. So we had to wait till morning and only did about 5.0 to 5.5 throughout the night on genoa and main, the configuration we had had all along.
This morning at last we got the gennaker up. it proved relatively easy and we have been rolling along at 6.5 to 8 knots ever since. Very pleasant sailing.
Reason 2: we had to gybe to the west once again since we cannot track to Mindelo directly (wind directly from behind) and the more southerly course we had been on until this morning would take us into an area with calm winds. Conditions are better more westerly – at least that is what the weather reports tell us at the moment. Experience teaches us that conditions are likely to be much different from the predicted ones, however!
Tonight we intend to gybe back onto a more southerly course. This time with gennaker alone which is proving to be beautifully stable and makes for a very pleasant ride.
Not only the wind but also the swell has dropped and after a day with 3-4m waves yesterday we now have picture book sailing with a mild swell and only the occasional roll that sends everything flying since we have become complacent in holding onto everything at all times.
I had a shower just now and a big wave made the boat roll suddenly pushing me against the shower door which opens out to the passage between the cabins. The door fortunately held, if not, it would have been a slippera fall and some sight!
As far as fish is concerned, George lost two more lures to some creatures of the deep, but none of them wanted to join us for dinner. In one instance it must have been a huge fish which took off, pulling out the line at full speed in spite of the reel being set at maximal resistance. There was no stopping this one and the line finally snapped after about 400 of the 500m length wth the reel being red hot from the futile breaking action. Hypotheses as to the perpetrator range from large tuna to Marlin. We will never know.
A few minutes ago we hauled in a large Dorade (est. 6-7kg) for tonights dinner. So we will not go hungry.
At least George hasn’t played “Puppet on a String” again - although I am told that the colorful silicone lures he uses are commonly called “Muppet on a String”. We cannot get away from the theme.
We did have an unexpected visitor though: a willow warbler (Fitis) flew around the boat and finally settled for a few minutes respite on sheets and deck. Apparently these birds are sometimes blown out to sea by storms (in this case we were more than 100nm from the African coast) and then perch on a boat to catch a breath before flying on again in a hopeless search for land.
We, however, have high hopes of finding land in the foreseeable future. At the moment we are estimating our arrival in Mindelo sometime during the night from Friday to Saturday.
Klaus