Thurs or Fri ?
14 June 2022 | 300 mles to go
Ian Sales
Weather overcast and drizzly but the wind was on the beam at 10-15 knots and we were making good progress. At this rate we may have to slow down to avoid arriving in the early hours of Thursday, but for now we were happy to keep on at 6+ knots. The wind then picked up to 15-20
and I had to put a reef in the mainsail as it was proving difficult to hold the course, which was now direct for our destination, not one to try and keep the wind. However by the evening the wind started to veer, putting us on a broad reach, then reduced, out with the reef, then came round
behind us, put the main away, then died completely, genoa away and on with the engine. Later I set the main to help stop us rolling but we are chugging along under a full moon, when it shows through the clouds. At least the rain has stopped. At this rate (4 knots) it will be Friday when we
arrive so we shall see what Tuesday brings. We may just be able to motor the rest of the way but I hope that theory will not be put to the test as this jerry can set up is fiddley needing monitoring every couple of hours, with resulting lack of sleep.
Three ships on the AIS but too far to see, no more wild life except the sailing jellyfish.
We can get the BBC World service at 10pm UTC(GMT) on the SSB radio, but its all bad news so we may not bother again. Ironic that we managed to get the SSB able to transmit voice, but theres no one to talk to, and in doing so lost the ability to pick up and send email over the radio,
which we would do daily if we could. Good job the sat phone is working OK.