Fair Weather
15 January 2012
Tom ZS1TA
Picture: Crostata being prepared by Vittorio and Valentina.A very pleasant jam filled tart with a biscuit like crust.
When leaving the Cape Verde Archipelago to head northwards it is customary to proceed in a northwest direction towards the Azores and or Madeira. This is because the dominant factor in the North Atlantic is the Azores High governing the weather patterns with it's clockwise rotating wind patterns. These give strong head-winds on the route from the Cape Verde's to Gibraltar. On our leaving the islands we were faced with a different scenario. The typical high pressure cell was absent with little wind showing in a large area from well west of Madeira to the African coast and all the way past Gibraltar.
Taking this into account together with our desire to possibly call at Las Palmas in the Canaries we set our course directly to that objective. Those following either of our tracking systems would have seen the unusual track in comparison with previous voyages from Cape Town to the Mediterranean. It might even have raised a few eyebrows at it's unusual nature.
The widely spaced isobars coupled with the lack of the dominant high gave us the most delightful sailing conditions with flat, calm seas and light winds. The winds were inclined to be a bit variable and not strong enough to dispense with our trusty engine which has been performing well. Using the engine and available wind to best advantage whist not straying from our direct route has resulted in daily distances of two hundred and ten to two hundred and fourty seven miles a day calculated noon to noon.
As we have progressed a careful watch has been kept on the weather as several depressions developed very far to the west close to the North American and Canadian coasts. Fortunately for us these systems moved to the north-east and did not affect our general area. Closing in on The Canaries we were taking note of the changing situation towards Gibraltar. Staying to the inside of the islands it was decided to forgo our opportunity of obtaining spares for the auto-pilot and continue as fast as possible to Gibraltar, as the forecasts obtained gave us a small window of favourable conditions to enter and pass through the straights.
Typical of the last few days was yesterday when I spent practically all of my available time sourcing various forms of weather information. This time spent prevented me from writing which I wanted to do very much. Even today the time spent has resulted in me doing this perhaps after the best radio propagation times so I hope that I am still able to get it away tonight. Not that it has been all doom and gloom for the past few days have been as exciting as ever.
Dolphins in the form of the smaller Atlantic species have become frequent visitors to the boat. These extremely attractive grey and white patterned chaps are extremely playful and leap out of the water in spectacular displays. Arriving on a pod of about fifteen whales we slowed and circled gently to try and view the as best we could without disturbing them. very large by comparison to those seen earlier I did at least see one raise it's head as it arched to surface without actually breeching. Definitely baleen whales and by their size, the head that I saw and dorsal fin exposed above the surface I feel sure that they were Fin Whales. Unfortunately none of us got any good usable pictures.
Bird sightings have become much more frequent being close to the coast with Gannets being very much in evidence. A few land birds also came to pay their respects with a very pretty swallow spending the night.
Having already mentioned the catching of a tuna, Enzo was most perturbed when a few hours later we caught another, being smaller than the first he was not at all happy about it being given a second chance and returned to the sea. We were rewarded however by another catch the next day. Watch out for the photo!
Having passed The Canaries last night we are pushing on for Gibraltar hoping to be there some time on Tuesday the 17th.
News of Paulo has filtered through and we are pleased to know that he has received medical treatment and is well on the road to recovery. It does depend on the decision of his doctor and the availability of a suitable rendezvous to see if he can rejoin us for the last leg.
Here at 31 deg 09 min North and 011 deg 29 min West I bid you good night as I try to send this before going on watch.
Cheers, Tom et al.