Horse Latitudes
02 May 2012
David
Today the wind has died to a dead calm. The area we are in is called the “horse latitudes” because sailing ships that where becalmed where sometimes forced to kill the animals on board due to the lack of drinking water. Fortunately our water maker is working perfectly so Stosh gets to live another day J. We don’t have any sails up and are motoring at 7 knots on a course of 60 degrees magnetic. This area is not just lacking wind, there don’t appear to be any fish here either.
The weather patterns for the next 5 days look optimal for us to catch the Westerlies and make awesome time to the Azores. About 24 hours from now the wind will start to pick up from the West, build over the next day to 15 to 20 knots, and keep going. We have spent the day preparing for reaching and running with the wind when it arrives. The water here is a beautiful deep blue. Beyond water and Sargasso seaweed there isn’t much else. We had one freighter come within our AIS range yesterday.
Tonight we are cooking up a feast of steak and chicken breasts since we can use the grill for the first time. Then it’s movie time and the watch schedule starts again. The three of us have fallen into a nice rhythm and work well together.