Current Position: 05 07N / 034 40W
24 hour progress: 110nm, 4.6kts avg SOG, just over 19 hours of engine time. Overall progress for the passage is 1559nm, approximately 1660nm to Grenada.
Yesterday we sailed for a couple of hours after the log entry. We did about all we could do to keep sailing. Eventually we just couldn't keep the chute full. So we rolled up and doused the asymmetric and put some lines dotted with fenders in the water. We turned off Nike and just drifted silently along while we all went swimming. The water was so warm and felt very refreshing! The weather was warm and sunny; it was a perfect spot and time to take a little swim. The water was only some 3000 meters deep!
After we wrapped up swim call we turned on the engine and took showers. We made water and motored on into the no wind zone of the ITCZ. Also in this area were gray clouds and dreary surroundings. Almost spooky with flat gray seas, cloudy gray skies. 1000 shades of gray. We were happy we had gone swimming in the sunny weather.
We enjoyed our fish tacos for dinner and saw even drearier weather ahead. Definitely rain clouds and probably some lightning. As night fell the radar came on and we tried to head for the opening between two cells. We unplugged electronics and hoped that the lightning would stay away.
It turned out to only be an issue for the first few of hours of night watch. We uneventfully passed between a couple of storms, and by midnight there was no more lightning or storms on the radar. It was simply a dark, wet night and we were all quite tired. It has been difficult to sleep well in the heat.
The winds were all over the place. Sometimes 20kts on the nose! Sometimes 10 or more from the south or west or north. Sometimes dead. Definitely not yet the NE trade winds that we expected to find on the other side of the ITCZ.
In the early morning, with the storm cells passed, we did some laundry. Then the winds finally moved to the NE and filled in a little. Off went the engine and we were back to sailing, and needing to make a little water again. Hahahaha
Nike continued to give us the "sensor missing" error yesterday, but has been behaving since we turned on the engine. Jon has tried to do some wire troubleshooting, but we really don't know what or where the fault lies.
Morale is high aboard. We had a great day yesterday with fish and a swim. Now we are happy that the engine is off and looking forward to hopefully having a good sail the rest of the way to Grenada!
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