1730 local time and we’ve got fourteen hours to go. The barometer us still at 1020mb, breeze is seven knots from the north, and if we were aboard Beowulf we’d be debating whether to carry the two spinnakers, or be conservative and stay with the code zero headsails. We’ve slowed down to 9.5/10 knots (depending on current) so as not to arrive too early on Sunday morning. The forecasts, both computer generated GRIB files and the UK Met Service faxes, show the high dominating for another 24 hours. However, this morning we had hooked cirrus clouds from the southwest and now there is a southwest swell, occasionally running four meters / 13 feet. The cirrus are a depression leading indicator and the swells a wind velocity warning. If we were just leaving the UK with these signs we would keep the heavy sails ready (regardless of that the forecasts said).
The lack of wildlife has been a surprise. A land bird has stopped by for a rest, three sea birds have cruised over for a look, and a small pod of dolphin played in our bow wave. On the other hand, there does seem to be some debris in the water and last night there was a loud thump around 0200 (we put engines into neutral on all thumps, just in case). We are debating today’s highlight; being buzzed by what we assume is a border patrol jet, chomping chocolate chip cookies, or changing one of our Separ fuel filters.
SailMail, using the station in Belgium, continues to work great – data transfer speeds are faster than Iridium. Nice to see the Icom SSB getting a work out.
6/5/2010 4:38 PM (UTC) position 45