Day 23, Falkland Islands to St Helena

1030Z 07APR22, Day 23, Falkland Islands to St Helena. Yesterday the weather was mostly sunny with high, puffy clouds. It is warm (hot really as we have been in cold climes for so long). We are outside a lot and have been keeping the door open all day and night.

Current Position: 26 23S / 012 39W
24 hour progress: 120nm, 5kts avg SOG. Overall progress for the passage is 2,975nm, approximately 729nm left to go via a great circle route to St Helena.

Yesterday, we enjoyed another pleasant sailing day. Progress was closer to our desired course than expected giving us good distance made good to St Helena for the day. This makes us happy as we all calculate potential days left to landfall on a regular basis—Ronan is obsessed.

The daylight hours saw us sailing with the full main and a full genoa as tight to the wind as we could get (yet again). The seas are quite calm and the ride is fairly comfortable, though heeled over. The port tack is easier to cook in the galley so that also improves morale. Additionally our port tack sails better, we get a little closer to the wind and sail a little faster. It is a funny phenomenon that gives us something to ponder as to why it is that way.

Yesterday saw us take on the project of doing a deep dive into our fruit and produce bins. We tossed overboard any bad food and found what needed to be quickly eaten. We had an onion mold and make quite a mess, but didn't loose a whole lot else. We are doing pretty well and have a bit of fruit left plus some vegetables; however, we are getting excited for some greens and a nice big salad!

Of course, while we were working through this project we went through a cloud with a bunch of rain. Not exactly the best way to clean and dry fruit and vegetables outside! After some inside / outside shuffling we got it all sorted out and started dinner preparations. The plan was to put a reef in the main to level out a bit for dinner, but then (as is typical) the wind picked up and we ended up putting in 2 reefs.

After a yummy chicken curry dinner, the higher winds had subsided and we shook one reef back out. We were even making a direct course to St Helena for a short while.

The winds were quite low over night and our batteries were also quite low as our refrigerator has needed to work a lot harder in the warmer water (the refrigerant is water cooled after circulating through the cold plate). So after a couple of nice, quiet, smooth sailing night watches, we finally turned on the engine to recharge a bit. This augmented the lighter winds and we motor sailed for about 3 hours boosting our speeds a knot or so over what they would have been. Then we secured the engine to enjoy the sunrise in quiet again.

We had the fishing line in all day yesterday with no bites. Daxton finds this incredibly disappointing. We will try again today. There is talk of changing out lures from our squid to a cedar plug. On average, we only catch one fish for every 2 days of fishing on passage.

No more birds! We saw one petrel come by for a very short while yesterday and that was it. Just vast expanses of sea, sky and clouds to observe and let one's mind wander. We are, unfortunately, starting to see some trash in the water. Yesterday, it was a bucket, a tray and a bottle.