Sargasso Seas
16 December 2011 | Canaries to Grenada
Rodney
Today was a sad day on Azure II. It is not that we hit a whale, tore a sail, or ran out of beer. No, it is much worse than that. At 10:00 UTC, 707 miles from Grenada, with 10 knots of breeze from the west - we engaged the transmission. A true Zen sailor's nightmare - we have now joined the ranks of the stink potters. The crew and I have always made fun of the other cruisers on the morning net that had reported that they were "motoring" in 8 knots of wind. We can make 4 knots of boat speed in 8 knots of wind, I would say. No, it was the wind direction that killed us. If Venezuela was our destination we were right on target - but we would not be home for Christmas. So we traveled 2000 miles under sail, as distance from San Francisco to Hawaii, but now we are stinky.
The good news is that the squalls are gone and it is a beautiful day! Sargasso seaweed has returned and dots the horizon with gold. Since it is so flat we will take the opportunity to make some water and do some laundry. Washing up will be a good thing for George - he has been wearing the same shirt and shorts for 5 days! The water temperature is 78.6 and the cabin temperature is 81.
Since it is so flat we will have a double movie night to boost the crew moral.