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Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Atlantic Ocean, 1585NM WSW of Mindelo

Due to the close by squalls, we decided to switch for the white sails for the night. What followed was a pretty perfect night sail under the full moon and some puffy clouds.

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Morning followed with pretty much the same rhythm, but then in the afternoon, the area of squalls finally caught up to us. We managed to not get rained on, but there were still some quite strong puffs. And in the meanwhile, the base wind kept dropping.

With that, we were left with quite frustrating conditions: big rolly seas and light winds. Too light to keep the mainsail filled. The wind speed would’ve been fine for the Parasailor, but with squalls all around us, we didn’t dare to risk it. But at least we saw a rainbow.

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We moved the ship’s time by one hour again today to realign sunset.



From the logbook

Time Position Course Speed Log Weather Remarks
15.01. 0:00 Z 12°28'24"N 48°59'8"W 279° 5.4kt 10048.8NM wind 12.6kt 49° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 1:00 Z 12°29'49"N 49°3'49"W 285° 5.1kt 10053.6NM wind 12.8kt 77° clouds 2/8 baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 2:00 Z 12°31'25"N 49°8'45"W 286° 6.1kt 10058.7NM wind 15.8kt 56° sea state 3/10 clouds 3/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1015 hPa Suski on watch
15.01. 2:30 Z 12°32'11"N 49°11'8"W 287° 5.3kt 10061.1NM wind 16.6kt 74° baro 1015 hPa Few raindrops from a heavy looking cloud.
15.01. 2:40 Z 12°32'32"N 49°11'58"W 302° 4.4kt 10062NM wind 15.7kt 73° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1 (30% furled). Next heavy cloud upwind. Also a pretty bright meteoroid.
15.01. 3:00 Z 12°33'8"N 49°13'32"W 288° 3.6kt 10063.7NM wind 16.3kt 54° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 3:03 Z 12°33'14"N 49°13'47"W 304° 4.8kt 10063.9NM wind 18kt 76° baro 1015 hPa Positioned hydro again to prevent chafe.
15.01. 3:38 Z 12°34'19"N 49°16'23"W 295° 4.4kt 10066.7NM wind 16.8kt 65° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1 (20% furled)
15.01. 4:00 Z 12°35'7"N 49°17'58"W 283° 5.1kt 10068.5NM wind 15.4kt 72° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 4:09 Z 12°35'24"N 49°18'37"W 330° 4.5kt 10069.2NM wind 17.1kt 56° baro 1015 hPa The spi halyard lock had been forgotten open, so the halyard got stuck inside the furled genoa. Unfurled, released, locked and tightened.
15.01. 4:23 Z 12°35'35"N 49°19'34"W 261° 5.2kt 10070.2NM wind 13.8kt 49° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1 (10% furled). Went wing on wing.
15.01. 4:41 Z 12°35'36"N 49°20'55"W 280° 6kt 10071.5NM wind 17.2kt 56° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1 (20% furled). Back to port side tack.
15.01. 5:00 Z 12°35'58"N 49°22'20"W 270° 5.6kt 10072.9NM wind 12.9kt 80° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 5:16 Z 12°36'14"N 49°23'24"W 295° 3.6kt 10074NM wind 11.4kt 47° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1
15.01. 6:00 Z 12°37'14"N 49°26'29"W 277° 4kt 10077.2NM wind 12.1kt 58° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 7:00 Z 12°39'5"N 49°30'36"W 291° 3.7kt 10081.6NM wind 13.8kt 72° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 7:51 Z 12°40'27"N 49°34'27"W 298° 5.2kt 10085.7NM wind 17.5kt 77° baro 1015 hPa Ship #7 Norwalk(637093305) visible 8.5 miles away. Its a cargo ship 300meters long!
15.01. 7:55 Z 12°40'36"N 49°34'49"W 276° 4.4kt 10086.1NM wind 15.4kt 73° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1 (20% furled)
15.01. 8:00 Z 12°40'43"N 49°35'11"W 284° 4.3kt 10086.4NM wind 14.2kt 79° sea state 3/10 clouds 3/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1015 hPa Bergie on watch
15.01. 9:00 Z 12°42'26"N 49°39'58"W 289° 5kt 10091.4NM wind 15.2kt 65° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 10:00 Z 12°44'15"N 49°44'21"W 284° 4.9kt 10096.1NM wind 15.6kt 62° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 10:46 Z 12°45'24"N 49°47'33"W 302° 4kt 10099.5NM wind 14.2kt 68° sea state 3/10 clouds 2/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1015 hPa Now there's again more salad around
15.01. 11:00 Z 12°45'48"N 49°48'34"W 297° 4.4kt 10100.6NM wind 14.1kt 75° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 12:00 Z 12°47'9"N 49°52'49"W 285° 3.1kt 10104.9NM wind 11.2kt 73° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 13:00 Z 12°48'17"N 49°57'12"W 273° 5.7kt 10109.4NM wind 12.8kt 66° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 13:22 Z 12°48'37"N 49°58'42"W 269° 4.9kt 10110.9NM wind 13.9kt 60° sea state 3/10 clouds 2/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1015 hPa There is a line of squally looking clouds to the east, but it looks like they might miss us
15.01. 14:00 Z 12°49'35"N 50°1'13"W 272° 3.9kt 10113.6NM wind 12.5kt 90° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 14:27 Z 12°50'28"N 50°3'2"W 299° 4.2kt 10115.6NM wind 13.7kt 78° baro 1015 hPa Switched boat time to UTC-3 and Suski on watch.
15.01. 15:00 Z 12°51'34"N 50°5'12"W 304° 4.9kt 10118NM wind 16.8kt 74° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 15:36 Z 12°52'53"N 50°7'17"W 341° 4.3kt 10120.4NM wind 17.4kt 111° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1 (60% furled). Going bit more north to try and avoid getting absolutely soaked
15.01. 15:59 Z 12°54'31"N 50°7'52"W 329° 5.6kt 10122.2NM wind 19kt 105° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Main, Genoa 1 (40% furled). Wing on wing.
15.01. 16:00 Z 12°54'34"N 50°7'54"W 333° 6.1kt 10122.2NM wind 18.3kt 110° sea state 4/10 clouds 5/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1015 hPa Didn't get wet.
15.01. 17:00 Z 12°58'2"N 50°10'46"W 299° 3.1kt 10126.7NM wind 9.8kt 146° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 17:55 Z 13°0'4"N 50°13'12"W 334° 3kt 10129.9NM wind 11.2kt 87° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Genoa 1 (40% furled), Staysail. In these low winds the mainsail was just slatting
15.01. 18:00 Z 13°0'12"N 50°13'28"W 299° 4.9kt 10130.2NM wind 12.3kt 128° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 19:00 Z 13°1'27"N 50°16'23"W 307° 3kt 10133.3NM wind 10.3kt 101° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 20:00 Z 13°2'33"N 50°19'29"W 302° 3.3kt 10136.6NM wind 10kt 97° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 20:44 Z 13°2'45"N 50°21'46"W 226° 2.9kt 10138.9NM wind 15.2kt 30° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Genoa 1 (90% furled), Staysail. Squall incoming
15.01. 21:00 Z 13°2'48"N 50°22'33"W 268° 3.1kt 10139.7NM wind 14.9kt 36° sea state 3/10 clouds 6/8 visibility 6/10 baro 1015 hPa Bergie on watch. The whole northern sky is full of squalls
15.01. 21:13 Z 13°2'56"N 50°23'16"W 310° 4.6kt 10140.4NM wind 19kt 22° baro 1015 hPa Sunset
15.01. 21:29 Z 13°3'2"N 50°24'10"W 278° 2.4kt 10141.3NM wind 13.1kt 13° baro 1015 hPa Heads water tap had been left running. We lost some 12l in the bilge. Pumped the bilge
15.01. 21:53 Z 13°3'10"N 50°25'22"W 255° 3.8kt 10142.5NM wind 7.4kt 349° baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Genoa 1 (20% furled), Staysail
15.01. 22:00 Z 13°3'13"N 50°25'48"W 276° 2.2kt 10142.9NM wind 7.3kt 7° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 22:55 Z 13°3'52"N 50°28'18"W 301° 3.3kt 10145.6NM wind 8.1kt 25° baro 1015 hPa Moon is clearly coming up, can see the shapes of clouds again
15.01. 23:00 Z 13°4'0"N 50°28'34"W 325° 4.1kt 10145.8NM wind 9.1kt 23° baro 1015 hPa Hourly position log
15.01. 23:18 Z 13°4'26"N 50°29'32"W 291° 3.1kt 10146.9NM wind 7.5kt 28° sea state 3/10 clouds 2/8 visibility 7/10 baro 1015 hPa There is a big black wall of cloud rising to the NE of us. Let's see if that hits
15.01. 23:46 Z 13°5'11"N 50°30'46"W 312° 2kt 10148.3NM wind 16.1kt 56° clouds 7/8 baro 1015 hPa Sails set: Staysail