After 2 days of making almost zero progress to the finish, delightful sailing though it was, we are now making serious inroads into the remaining miles, clocking off over 30 miles every hour..equivalent to the Needles to Cherbourg in 2 hours, over and over again!
We are now firmly embedded in the perfect spot in the isobars squeezing between the Azores High and the approaching cold front. The wind is nearly 30 knots and we are sailing fast with 2 reefs, small gennaker and staysail.
A very familiar sail combination from the Southern Ocean, but not seen on board for the last 10 days of reaching up the Tropical Atlantic.
Our finest entertainment last night?during our night watch, was having to avoid a huge container ship that was coming towards us, slightly from our right hand side. We were on a collision course, and we were perhaps the only boats within a 100 miles. It often seems to happen like that..
We had a closing velocity of 50 knots with the ship, and it was not changing course for us, so we had to ease our sails, then luff a bit closer to the wind., to pass a hundred meters away from it..
Brian
Banque Populaire V
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