Buy us a beer!

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Atlantic Ocean, 732NM SW of Las Palmas

The wind kept varying during the night, so a couple of two hour patches were motored through the night. For Suski in the morning watch, the wind had steadied itself to a nice 12kn on the beam. Lille Ø was eating miles on a good rate. As we finally caught our route line on the chart plotter and the wind weakened to under 10kn, we made the sail change to Parasailor. Wing on wing with weak winds is much more rolly, so we prefer the extra setup time and change to parasailor for these kinds of situations.

Image

The ride has been smooth for the last couple of days, and both of us have been sleeping soundly on our off watches. This means that we are well rested and have actually been awake for some of our off watches. When sleep is patchy, you need to try and catch every single second of it, and you end up seeing your co-sailor only on a brief exchange when going from watch to off watch. This better sleep quality and more waking hours enabled social existence on this passage has been very enjoyable.

We should now be coming out of the calm patch, and winds ought to keep improving the whole way to Mindelo.



From the logbook

Time Position Course Speed Log Weather Remarks
25.12. 0:00 Z 19°42'36"N 22°9'12"W 255° 3.4kt 8310.2NM wind 4.7kt 310° sea state 3/10 clouds 1/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1016 hPa Bergie on watch. Lot drier air tonight means more stars visible
25.12. 0:20 Z 19°42'14"N 22°9'43"W 235° 1.2kt 8310.8NM wind 3.5kt 320° baro 1016 hPa Sails down, motoring
25.12. 1:00 Z 19°40'32"N 22°12'15"W 235° 4kt 8313.7NM wind 3.7kt 286° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 1:16 Z 19°39'47"N 22°13'14"W 227° 4kt 8314.9NM wind 2.6kt 301° baro 1015 hPa It is raining softly
25.12. 2:00 Z 19°37'47"N 22°16'7"W 241° 4.3kt 8318.3NM wind 2.1kt 256° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 2:30 Z 19°36'23"N 22°18'10"W 199° 2kt 8320.7NM wind 6kt 324° baro 1015 hPa Motor stopped, sailing with Main, Genoa 1
25.12. 3:00 Z 19°35'21"N 22°19'32"W 229° 4.2kt 8322.4NM wind 7.1kt 306° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 3:13 Z 19°34'47"N 22°20'21"W 228° 4kt 8323.3NM wind 9.2kt 306° baro 1015 hPa Moon is rising, a red upturned crescent
25.12. 4:00 Z 19°32'47"N 22°23'7"W 228° 4.2kt 8326.6NM wind 8.3kt 311° baro 1014 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 4:42 Z 19°30'57"N 22°25'33"W 230° 3.3kt 8329.5NM wind 10.3kt 322° baro 1014 hPa Dolphins in the dark, disturbing the bioluminescence. Flying fish scurrying away in panic
25.12. 5:00 Z 19°30'13"N 22°26'30"W 232° 3.6kt 8330.7NM wind 10.5kt 319° baro 1014 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 6:00 Z 19°27'44"N 22°29'47"W 222° 3.8kt 8334.7NM wind 11kt 348° baro 1015 hPa Suski on watch.
25.12. 7:00 Z 19°25'1"N 22°33'24"W 233° 4.5kt 8339.1NM wind 9.7kt 315° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 8:00 Z 19°22'5"N 22°37'48"W 240° 6.3kt 8344.1NM wind 16.6kt 337° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 8:05 Z 19°21'49"N 22°38'12"W 216° 5.2kt 8344.6NM wind 12.4kt 339° sea state 3/10 clouds 1/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1016 hPa Sun!
25.12. 9:00 Z 19°18'57"N 22°42'29"W 236° 5.9kt 8349.6NM wind 14.7kt 1° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 9:46 Z 19°17'4"N 22°45'25"W 237° 4.4kt 8352.9NM wind 13.8kt 340° baro 1017 hPa Autopilot set to wind mode
25.12. 10:00 Z 19°16'32"N 22°46'25"W 256° 4kt 8354NM wind 10.3kt 22° baro 1017 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 11:00 Z 19°14'40"N 22°50'23"W 222° 4kt 8358.3NM wind 11.5kt 345° baro 1018 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 12:00 Z 19°13'0"N 22°53'18"W 237° 2.1kt 8361.6NM wind 12.3kt 11° sea state 3/10 clouds 2/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1018 hPa Bergie on watch
25.12. 12:03 Z 19°12'52"N 22°53'26"W 224° 4.4kt 8361.7NM wind 9.8kt 12° baro 1018 hPa Sails set: Parasailor
25.12. 13:00 Z 19°10'25"N 22°55'36"W 213° 3.9kt 8364.9NM wind 12.2kt 2° baro 1017 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 14:00 Z 19°7'24"N 22°57'55"W 223° 5.5kt 8368.7NM wind 12.8kt 11° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 15:00 Z 19°4'33"N 23°0'40"W 224° 5.5kt 8372.6NM wind 11.4kt 14° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 16:00 Z 19°1'50"N 23°3'15"W 223° 3.4kt 8376.3NM wind 9.3kt 15° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 17:00 Z 18°59'12"N 23°6'0"W 225° 3.7kt 8380NM wind 11.5kt 355° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 18:00 Z 18°56'44"N 23°9'5"W 244° 4.1kt 8383.9NM wind 11.3kt 18° sea state 3/10 clouds 3/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1016 hPa Suski on watch
25.12. 19:00 Z 18°54'1"N 23°12'12"W 240° 3.4kt 8387.9NM wind 10.8kt 15° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 19:02 Z 18°53'57"N 23°12'19"W 238° 4.4kt 8388.1NM wind 10.3kt 22° baro 1016 hPa Sun has set
25.12. 19:59 Z 18°51'25"N 23°15'15"W 234° 3.7kt 8391.8NM wind 9.7kt 21° baro 1016 hPa It's now dark again. Still holding on port side tack.
25.12. 20:00 Z 18°51'23"N 23°15'18"W 248° 4.5kt 8391.9NM wind 10.7kt 18° baro 1016 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 21:00 Z 18°48'42"N 23°18'21"W 228° 3.3kt 8395.9NM wind 7.3kt 18° baro 1017 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 22:00 Z 18°46'32"N 23°22'10"W 221° 4.3kt 8400.2NM wind 9.3kt 33° baro 1018 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 22:10 Z 18°46'1"N 23°22'38"W 225° 4.5kt 8400.9NM wind 9.9kt 52° baro 1018 hPa Woke Bergie up for gybing the Parasailor. Now on Starboard side.
25.12. 23:00 Z 18°42'54"N 23°23'31"W 180° 3.2kt 8404.2NM wind 9.2kt 37° baro 1018 hPa Hourly position log
25.12. 23:55 Z 18°40'3"N 23°24'12"W 217° 5.2kt 8407.1NM wind 10.7kt 355° baro 1018 hPa Gybed the Parasailor due to wind shift, back to port tack