The weather gods are not favouring us. We are now abeam Madeira and trying to run south to escape the encroaching anticyclone. Unfortunately for us, we have not been quite quick enough and the novelty of yesterday's slack winds and smooth seas has now worn off. The faster boats appear to have managed to run ahead of the calm and should have a lovely passage down to the trade winds, but it looks like we'll now have to sit it out and won't make the Canaries until well into the weekend.
We're now calculating how long the passage will take us if we continue to drift along at 2kts, and which month the food will run out in - February or March. James has enough diesel on board to supply us with water for 150 days so if we're not in by April we'd better start on rations. We're also speculating if we'll arrive in Barbados before Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, has her recently announced child.
Talking of food, our perishable produce is not surviving as well as we'd hoped. We're frantically trying to use up carrots and soft cheeses before they ooze away, and simply had to have American pancakes for breakfast to help with the eggs. We're also not topping up the batteries as well as James hoped as we're just not travelling through the water fast enough to generate current.
During a brief spell of breeze, we managed a run at 7kts and were joined by a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins. Other than that, there's not much to do on watch and we have not seen another vessel all day. The children tried to go fishing with their rock-pool nets today but were always unlikely to catch anything in 4000m of water.
dont panic men - if u run short of food which child will u eat first. snow closed stanstead/luton today - as your father heads north. mum x x x
ReplyDeleteGood journey tilo Gateshead then snow slowed traffic to a crawl. Dad
ReplyDeletePraying for you all, sounds like you're eating plenty of tasty food. :)
ReplyDeleteTracker indicates wind and knots are with you. Well done Enjoy Love
ReplyDeleteI imagine eating all the food was pre-planned by James to lighten the boat ready for proper racing.... he just didn't tell you !
ReplyDeleteIan
There's a cracking poem you might want to have a read of by a bloke called Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Rind of the Old Seadog, or something like that. Bottom line is, be careful around albatrosses
ReplyDeleteMessage to Dave and Ollie, it's a seriously hard frosty morning in Bedhampton this morning .. Sometimes there's benefits to bobbing around in doldrums with your shorts on ;-). Good luck all and be safe out there.... Sue x
ReplyDeletelooks like you're going well this morning guys, back in the 7th spot! Not sure why gwen-evan seems to be making an early dash for the US without going via the canaries!
ReplyDelete