Day 3 at sea
32º 10.4’N, 001º 51.7’W
14.25 local time
32º 10.4’N / 001º 51.7’W
We have now been underway for 3 days and before departing, we thought we would be close to the Canaries by now. As we mentioned before, the weather has been very interesting with more wind on the nose than we could have imagined. Upwind sailing normally has a negative clang to it, but for us, the wind has been just strong enough, and the swell small enough, that we have had some amazing sailing.
We departed Lagos a day earlier than planned, knowing it may take a bit extra time to get south. We have time and it doesn’t really matter that we are at times pointing towards Newfoundland, and on the next tack towards Morocco. To put it in perspective, the passage is just under 650 nm on the rhumb line (the straight line between Lagos and Las Palmas). FALKEN can easily sail 200 nm per day if we have a good breeze on the beam or behind, and the passage would take just over 3 days. We’ll see how long it will take us, and how many miles we will have been sailing.
Last night was another beautiful night. The clouds disappeared after dinner and we had a crystal clear night full of stars. The wind was on the beam and FALKEN was like a magic carpet flying along. When I got up on my watch at 0800 this morning, the wind was lighter, and we lasted about an hour until we had to get the motor on. When we were down under 3 kts of speed and the swell started to kick us around, it was time to roll up the yankee and turn the engine on. According to the GRIBs, it should be filling in sometime this afternoon.
We were hoping for another swim in the ocean as the wind died, but the swell is a bit too big so we opted for the second best, a warm shower on the aft deck. I will start cooking dinner in about two hours; we have been eating at 1730 to have dinner before the sun sets. It is getting warmer as we are heading south and I am in shorts and t-shirt for the first time since leaving Portugal. Life is good onboard :)
Cheers from Mia and the FALKEN Crew
mia@59-north.com
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