When we look at our Predictwind software, it shows different colours for different wind strengths. In simple terms, green is good, red is windy, and black is bad. At one point, it looked like someone spilled a bottle of black ink on our rhumb line for Sunday. We set off on a NE course yesterday (Friday) to keep ourselves to the south of this mess, and subsequently after discussion with our weather router we decided to head due east instead, so we have been galloping along for most of the day at about 7-8 kts. It isn't doing much for our miles to go countdown, but we are glad to put some distance between ourselves and this gale.
By the time I went off-watch after lunch, we were comfortably close reaching in 10-12 kts and a still-calm sea. I started playing "Who am I" as a diversion with Benjamin, and after the big kids joined in and I slipped away to the aft cabin, I could hear them still at it quite some time later, with great gales of laughter as they tried to pick the most obscure characters they could think of from the movies and cartoons they have seen. Having three kids in a confined space like this can be intense at times, but the moments of camaraderie and laughter certainly balance them out!
On his watch, Max had a small fleet of AIS fishing targets within range. This time it looked like a big boat, a couple of smaller boats, and some nets. They weren't nearly as close as the big tanker we passed on our 2nd or 3rd night at sea that came within two miles of us, enabling Max to hear their engines across the water! We like it better when the only evidence of traffic is our AIS display, but the ships are far enough that we can't see them on the horizon.
We continue to have albatrosses fishing near the boat, and for the third evening in a row a group of dolphins showed up for a brief "Hello" as I was preparing dinner. On a day when we had calmer seas, one of the birds seemed to be flying ahead of us, stopping to sit in the water and watch us go by, and then flying ahead to repeat the parade. He seemed quite curious about us. Max had an even closer wildlife encounter this morning when he found a little bird in the cockpit. We think it flew in the open side of our rain enclosure, but then couldn't get out the other side. He gently set it on the back deck, and it seems to have gone on its way again.
The ever impressive albatross. |
Numbers always appeal to me and catch my eye. Tonight's observation was that we passed 1043 nm to go when the time on the clock was 10:43 (Ok, it was 2243 on the display, but I used my imagination!) I think that the odds of seeing the time of day match the nm to go are quite slim for the rest of the trip.
By the time I handed over the watch at 3am, the seas had built to about 2m with a short period and the winds had picked up to just over 20 kts. We will be earning our milestone chips for the last 1000 nm!
Love to all
Elizabeth
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At 2019-07-01 4:08 AM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 39°35.78'N 178°25.15'E
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Enjoy your blogs very much, keep them coming please!��
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