Saturday, November 13, 2010

Half way

As of today, we are now in the second half of the crossing. At noon,
we were 1428 n.m. from Cabedelo fora total distance of 2882. We have
covered 1540 n.m. over the ground, some 153 miles per day, which is very
good considering that we never had more than 15 knots of wind on average.
In theroy, the wind should drop even further today, and this for about
three days. When this happen, we are going to jibe the main and the
genoa, to keep them wing on wing, and curve our course northwards as it
appears that the wind will come back from the north. From now on, the
name of the game will be to maximize speed, almost regardless of the course.
Today the sun has shown up for the first time. Olivier did not waste one
minute to drop long pants and t-shirt. I am a lot conservative in terms
of clothing and I tend to avoid exposing myself to the sun. But I am
dressed lighter still.
Since we left, we have used on average 2.4535 US Gallons of water per
day, and we have at this rate 72 days left. No worries on that score. We
could cross three oceans and still not run out of water.
Yesterday, I ran the main engine for 5 minutes, just to put the impeller
of the raw water pump in a different position. As for the genset, I have
ran it for a little less than 8 hours, To me, it's a lot, but we have
not seen the sun since we left. Things should change with the sun making
its first apparition. I would like to use it one hour every other day.

We are not so lucky as far as food is concerned, especially fresh stuff.
What we bought in Lobito did not survive and it's a good thing that we
bought just a little. We have ran out of bread and today or tomorrow I
will try and bake some. I have not done it in a very long time, so it
will be interesting to see if I succeed.

Less than ten days to go now. We will survive !

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