We tacked! A 1,900 mile reach!!

Strange thing happened this evening – we tacked. First time since Grenada so that’s about 1,900nm on the starboard tack which has been perfect for us. No messing about with running backstays every five minutes and from that point of view we love the space that the ocean offers.

In fact since St Martin I would think we have made about 10 adjustments to the sails, just reefing, as we have held the same point of sail relative to the wind all the way, a fairly close reach.

Motored today from 0600-1700, changed time zones +1 hour (supposedly every 15 degrees of longitude but we make the changes as and when we like in accordance with the available sunshine on the evening and morning watches), now sailing 070T at about 7-8kn in 12kn N wind but current is calculated as being 1.2kn against.

And here’s another statistic; I have been splashed twice during the last 1500nm, once in the aft cockpit and once on the foredeck. Twice!

We saw a navy vessel yesterday with angular steel plate and thought this was to avoid radar detection. Probably cost billions as the new idea in stealth but our Raymarine unit picked it up at 20 odd miles. Not seeing the warship on AIS it was very tempting to VHF them to let them know it wasn’t working properly! Thought we might see some traffic now we are on the Bermuda-Azores rumb line but so far only a tanker. But the one thing we do see are miles and miles of Valella jellyfish sailing towards the USA. And if you look closely into the calm sea as we could today there are hundreds of tiny jellyfish per square meter plus several other species as well.

DTG 660nm
Galley; Chilli & Basmati Rice, Chilli cheese nachos
Barometer 1028