Saturday, June 06, 2009

Day 12 - Bermuda to Ireland

Weather:  Dry, mixed clouds, still relatively smooth seas (long swells, little chop), sailing mostly down wind (currently on a broad reach).

General Comments:  After all that heading North, we are now heading SE, S to get away from (well, through a more comfortable path through) two low pressure systems in our path.  Kyle does a FANTASTIC job of analyzing the weather using our daily grib files, and the seas and wind conditions on our initial route are forecast to be quite rough ahead - so a change of course - it won't change the route to a nice smooth sail, Kyle says we are still expecting 30kt winds and 15-20' seas - but the alternative is 40kt winds and even higher seas.... Although (if the forecast doesn't change) we won't see those conditions until Sunday-Tuesday. 

** CORRECTION ** While confessing to my plotting snafu yesterday, I made yet another silly mistake in my math(s).  One degree is 60 nautical miles (nm) - so 2 degrees is 120nm  - I Had us almost 120 nm North of where we actually were, and hence was worrying about ice bergs that most likely were not going to be there (although that still doesn't rule them out completely). - I assume many reading the blog spotted it - I wonder who/how many actually wrote to correct my math(s).

During yesterday's rig check, we decided we should replace the split pin on the gooseneck - the connection of the boom (at the bottom of the sail) to the mast.  It was starting to look a little worn - and that pin that the split pin secures is something we don't have any spares for (note for future!).

We've seen no ships for possibly a week now, but I did hear a little radio crackle yesterday, indicating someone was not far over the horizon.

Kyle had dolphins visit him again at Sunrise, but they didn't stay long - just checking us out.  He thought since we were going at a good speed they might stay longer, they are said to favor 7kts - exactly the speed we were going - but they only made a couple of passes before moving on.

Food: An easy food day yesterday - cereal, egg fried rice for lunch and by special request, for Kyle, Macaroni Cheese (out of a packet).  I had sworn Kyle NEVER to let his mother know I feed him such junk food, but I guess the cat is out the bag now!  I refused and just boiled up some extra pasta and had that with a pesto sauce.  However I still couldn't resist a few spoons of Kyle's Mac Cheese.

Progress: Yesterday we made 120nm, So far on this trip we have traveled (through the water) 1340nm, and have 1455nm (straight line) to go.

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