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Caduceus - Cape Town to St Helena Day 5 - The force is with us, most of the time



Position 26:34.132 S 007:04.01 E
Date 2359 (UTC+2) Monday 23 January 2017
Distance run in 24hrs 154nm over the ground, 140nm through the water
Passage total 741nm over the ground, 707nm through the water
Distance to go 961nm
Planned distance Cape Town to St Helena 1697nm

The passage up and across the Atlantic is routed to be downwind and down current. So far, so good and the force (current) is definitely with us. Today’s difference between distance over the ground against through the water of 14nm represents favourable current. It may not seem much but if it was adverse at the same rate we would have only covered 126nm over the ground. It is however not entirely consistent by any means, and we have had hours when the current has been adverse as the current swirls and eddies, but overall we have no complaints. Motor hours today were 3hrs 40mins but with the dawn came some more reliable wind and we made better progress, in very benign sea conditions, as we pass round the eastern side of the South Atlantic high. After our experiences in the Indian Ocean it is most pleasant to be sailing again with a poled out genoa in moderate trade winds. Conditions were such that the Mate created dinner from scratch rather than raid the freezer. A very pleasant chicken in a cream, mushroom and white wine sauce was the result.

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