L'Eau Commotion Westabout

6:00pm Monday 18th December 2017 ( UTC-2 ) Yes with so much time on my hands and with so little to do I can always look around and find something to grouch about. First the positives. A clear almost cool breeze gently wafting through the cabin with only the occasional but distant glorious full bodied white cumulus to contrast the blue of the sky and the really deep blue of the crystal clear Atlantic. An almost imperceptible swell rolling leisurely along and here and there a little white cap but nothing so threatening as to require the closure of any of the hatches and a thermometer that refuses to register out of the comfort zone. Enough strength in the wind to operate the WindPilot and keep us dead on course without any uncomfortable slewing around and sails that remain full but not pressed to heel the boat more than a few degrees. And the grouch? If only we were a knot faster....... Seriously the sailing is superb if a little leisurely at times and the 125 miles on the clock a pleasant surprise. We have now left the Tropics and passed the latitude of Rio and at 144 days elapsed time we are 21 days ahead of the 165 days it took Katherine Ann to reach this point. The only thing of note was that the smart looking 300 metre LNG carrier, SCK Mitre swept past at 17.9 knots, heading, he said, for orders, but I reckon there'll be plenty of willing bidders to make their Yuletide ceramic logs emit that cheerful glow. It is only a guess but by applying the reverse to his course he may well have come from the gas fields of Tierra del Fuego. Something to keep in mind as I travel along this sparsely populated route.