Wind-less Wednesday!
The weather situation continues to be intriguing. It seems we have been travelling East at the same rate as the High pressure . As we slip back , so the wind increases to 8 knots and veers south , only to drop and back as far as ESE an hour later as we run up against the interface again. There was no chance of either of us falling asleep again last night as we took turns in slaloming though these changes , trimming constantly. There was no moon , and gradually the clear skies and stars of the early night were extinguished by low spreading cloud making for a very black night. By dawn the whole sky was covered except for a patch of light to the East which I fancied might be the centre of the high , gradually slipping away now if the barometer is to be believed , confirmed perhaps by the wind being more constant from the South. Its still only 7 knots or so , but as its on the beam we are making fair progress. Despite these low wind speeds we made 110 miles noon to noon , and if our Viking friends appear to have got ahead again , I suspect it is because they are motoring. Not only do we not have the fuel reserves to do this , it seems pointless if it just takes us back into the middle of the high , so we dribble on, perfectly comfortable and content.
The only advantage of a really black night like this is that it intensifies the phosphorescence, which in turn reveals dolphins under the water from far off , like erratic torpedoes zig-zagging in for the kill. Every day brings more and more of them, usually a dozen outliers who tumble around the bow for a while before racing off to join their friends who are can be seen leaping clear of the water in really large numbers somewhere on the horizon , no doubt feeding mercilessly on some poor unfortunate shoal of fish.
By contrast, the court marshal was pretty lenient ˆ all grog and shore leave stopped for 4 days , which coincidentally is the number displayed on the ETA column of the GPS when we are moving fast. When , as now , the wind is down to 4 knots it sulks and just goes blank , so we are not making any predictions either. Nonetheless our ≤ of the way packet of crisps is due in 15 miles which keeps us on our toes as we pass38 36N,38 36W ( a pleasingly symmetrical sort of place!). All well.