Current Position: 22 55S / 010 51W
24 hour progress: 106nm, 4.4kts avg SOG, about 10 hours on the engine. Overall progress for the passage is 3,324nm, approximately 508nm left to go via a direct line to St Helena.
Yesterday we ended up using the engine a bit. First, in the morning, we took advantage of the light winds and slower boat speeds to motor sail for a few hours and recharge the batteries. As we can sail in 8-10 knots of wind and the engine is noisy we secured the engine after a while to return to sailing - full sails, close hauled, heading N.
By late afternoon our wind speeds dropped to 5kts and our boat speed was less than 2kts. This isn't very comfortable as one bobs around, the sails flap, and potentially the boat loses steerage. So, the engine came back on for another, longer period and we motored straight towards St Helena. Before midnight the winds seemed to be steadily back in the 8-10 knot range so we secured the engine. We sailed along, slowly sometimes, with about 6 or 7 kts of wind. But we kept at it, as it is so much more peaceful and easier to sleep without the noise. Plus our batteries were back to 100%.
We seem to now have the wind direction to point to and stay pointed to St Helena. Yay! This means we are on the home stretch and most of our miles should now be direct. We are hoping the winds fill in a bit and give us a steady 10-15kts of wind speed. It seems like we might get to such a point this morning or by later today. Time will tell. This morning the winds are still variable, but mostly in the 8-10kts range. We're close hauled again/still and have been under full sails except for when we furled the genoa to motor direct.
For sunset last night, we were treated to a painted sky with a fantastic range of colors. It started out with brilliant oranges and developed everything in the rainbow reds to yellows to purples. Not something that seemed to photograph well, but something to experience and watch as it slowly evolved over time.
We had the fishing line in all day again yesterday without a bite. No luck with the pink squid. There has been no pressure to put the line in this morning. Maybe we will try or maybe we will give it a rest day as our speeds are a bit slow still.
Still no birds and still only occasional flying fishes. Wondering if we will start to see more sea life as we are nearly within 500nm of St Helena now.
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