Sunday 15th November 2009 Day 37 Excellent sailing today.. with birds for company still!
Lovely sun & blue skies this morning... but now we're sailing beneath a grey, overcast sky . But my shearwater companions are still with me! They seem to have adopted 'Nereida' and every time I look out, there they are, circling and swooping around, mainly astern of us... so very nice to see! I think the male has a definite pale yellow curved line well below the eye - which is surrounded by a distinctive pale yellow area - hence 'spectacled' shearwater...! I threw a rotten potato overboard and one instantly swooped down and landed in the water to investigate. (I has a nice omelette tonight with potatoes, onion and asparagus... mm! I still have plenty of fresh onions, potatoes & eggs in store.)
Have had a very good sailing day today - at over 7knots regularly this afternoon in 17 knots apparent - with one reef in mains'l , full genoa and full stays'l. Started being forced overnight and this morning more and more to NE and points north... so tacked over onto port tack at about the right time mid-morning, with wind continuing to back, and was able to make due S initially, but soon SSE ... presently (2000GMT ) heading between SE and ESE. Will stay on this tack and follow wind around (that's the beauty of wind-steering - I don't have to do a thing - it does it for me!) until heading E and then ease the sheets gradually to keep going E, ending up with the wind from abaft the beam (I love that phrase!!)as the Low passes by.. that's the plan, anyway..!!
DMG to noon today: 83M .... but 115 M by log
Big difference because we'd been heading E-ENE-NE since noon yesterday, slowed down by the good-sized seas that built up in the afternoon, and then tacked around this morning to head S for 2-3 hours at good speed - a big inverted kind of 'V'!