Saturday, May 13, 0200. 24deg 42min N/64deg 33min W.

458 miles to go and the wind is still teasing us with northwesterly flow. It’s been blowing 2.5, gusting six, with apparent wind at 12 or so from 15/20 degrees. So the main is helping maybe just a hair. No mention of any frontal activity in next 24 hours on the Sat C high seas weather reports. The next batch of faxes from NMF (Boston) will start coming in around 0800.

We’ve got 164 gallons of fuel left which at 3.5 gph is barely enough with no margin for error. We’ll wait until 1200 and if the situation has not improved with either boat speed or fuel consumption (due to an increase in breeze or better motorsailing angle) we’ll slow down a bit to get better mileage. Hey – we are a sailboat after all, and the worst that will happen is we get down to the day tank (20 gallons), quit motoring, and sail the rest of the way – and then Linda would win all future arguments about how much fuel to carry.

0300 – The wind is up to six, puffing to 7.5 from the west. The boat is heeling slightly – feels like we might be getting some luck. In the meantime it is COLD and we’re sleeping under blankets for the first time since we left California in January.

0520 – Wind has steadied down in the six knot range from the NW – we can just lay Bermuda at this angle. We are getting a clear package of faxes from NMF on the six meg frequency – which we’ve not used before – so we’ll have something to digest before we get a heads up from the Neris about their weather. Noticed Lee Chesneau is working the Atlantic desk tonight at the Marine Prediction Center. It is nice to be able to put a face on the forecasters creating the fax charts – we met many of them when doing research for “Mariner’s Weather Handbook”.

The surface 24 and 48 hour forecasts look quite complex – a couple of poorly formed highs each side of us with a strange looking front, running south to north, right over our area. Tough to tell which way the wind will blow – could be northerly or southerly quadrant winds.

There’s a nasty looking 500mb low coming off the coast on the 48 hour which will probably bring gale force winds with it over the Gulf Stream – but right now it looks like we’ll beat it into port. It provides incentive to keep pushing, rather than taking it easy!

And the surface analysis for right now? We’re in the middle of an area with NO ISOBARS – which makes us thankful for the light airs we have.

0730 – Spoke with Dan Neri. They’ve got light headwinds and are motorsailing. This is not fair. Looks like a motorboat ride for the next 24 hours. We’ve got a little more wind – now from the WNW at 7 to 8, so we are making good time with working sails just drawing and engine – doing 10.5 to 11 knots for 2 gallons per hour.

(View the weatherfaxes at http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov .)