1030hrs 15 May 2005 UTC 22’10”N 035’29”W Map Ref 219 5210nm (2204nm to Falmouth)
Propagation dreadful this morning (15/1030Z) – you may not get this till tomorrow Z – started yesterday evening local.
Last night:
The Great big Bear is up in the top spreaders and – all going well – should be up over the masthead in a couple of nights. So the flea has humped its bluey all the way round the curve of the pachydermatous rump and is approaching the nice sunny bit half way up the topside. Pole Star at about our latitude (now 21N) above the horizon to the north. 25 knots, ENE, #2 and 2 reefs snugged down a bit for the night as the clouds looked rather dark and windy earlier. Now receding. I think the Cross has all but disappeared below the southern horizon – a bit cloudy down there so don’t know for certain.
Hardly dare write about this in case the Examiner notices, but we’ve been hooning it a bit over the last couple of days probably averaging a least 6kts. Unheard of. We expect it to go soft in a day or so and then back around to the south east to give us a bit of a lift. All the parts are crossed.
Later – now early this morning local and breakfast time – sort of – hard if you’re on 3X3:
And these two grizzled old farts from central casting at Fox still don’t really know whether they are drinking rum or single malt. They think the colour is the real give-away and it’s Lambs Navy but not absolutely sure. Never make real sailors out of these two. Lash ‘em to the bus shelter and have pigeons poo on them – and dogs sniff a lot and lift their legs. The Ancestors are probably Aghast. Apoplectic. Agonised. Anguished. Abject. Ashamed. Astounded. Try it some time – get someone to wake you in the middle of the night in very dim light with a nip of something and see how good you are. Might be a bit easier if you have had lots of recent practice – which we haven’t but might need to commence.
Later still:
15/1200Z – first time ever – can’t connect to any sailmail station anywhere, so this update will just get expanded and the two messages I know are waiting for us will have to wait for at least another 6 hours. Poo.
Pete saw a ship last night, heading north west – perhaps Cape Verdes to NY – too far north now to see the Global Challenge boats which will have come up the east side of the S. Atlantic just west of the Benguela current, to cross the equator a long way further east than we did and will now be heading south of us towards Boston. I think.
And yet more later:
We are now in what looks like the beginning of the Azores high, although we are still 1000+ miles south of the archipelago. Overcast, cloud base getting lower, looking very frontal but quite soft. Pity we aren’t 300 miles further north, where the wind should be turning southerly and later SW going towards Falmouth. But can’t sneeze at tracking north at 6.5 knots.
Anne G – if you are still out there – I’ve lost the reference to the St Malo Cap Horniers mob – buried in the past logs, sorry – would you be kind enough to contact them and ask them if they’d like to hear from us (and, perhaps, if you think they don’t take themselves too seriously, ask how we get our free DIY earring and p.i.t.w. kits)?. Seems like something worth investigating at least. Perhaps, on second thoughts, ear piercing out here is a pleasure we may not need.
This will be too big to send if I go wittering on so here endeth this idle nonsense.
The logs ramblings can be cryptic, so we have added: