Midwatch 12-1-13
We ran downwind through varying conditions last night with the big blue, genoa, trisail combo. Our track looks like a pigs tail. The wind finally rotated around to the East before dawn. Kim used her last energy to help me get big blue down in 20 kts in the dark. She has been something less than a puddle ever since. We crossed the genoa and have been running south on a reach all day. We left the day-glo orange trysail up but it didn't help us get noticed by the crew of the big tanker I had to call and wake up. There was a period with a lot of ships traffic on the approach to Gibraltar. We are now in the middle of no-where. I believe Africa is our closest point of refuge if you want to call it that. We ran our batteries down in the calmer winds yesterday. We just furled the genoa and are now motoring with the trisail for stability while we replace some amps for the auto-pilot. Dinner was on Dad...Ramen Noodles. Finn ate his and Anna's and asked for more...he is unbelievable...the ocean conditions that flatten everyone else have no effect on him. Maybe he is some kind of super hero? Anna must be starting to feel better because she is singing. Again...Kim is miserable. On a better note: Last night we survived without the heater... first night since sometime inSeptember. We are still wearing hats and mittens while on watch though. The sunrises and sunsets have been beautiful but the nights are damned long. Our current position is: 17:30 UTC (about sunset) 34 Degrees 58.498 N 10 Degrees 27.872 W Speed 5.5 kts Course 180 Degrees We are running south towards an arbitrary waypoint (32N 11W). We are trying to stay well to the East of a low pressure system to our west and we are trying to set ourselves up for a better angle for some southerlies that we expect in a couple of days. They get southerlies down here about once a year. Lucky us! It will be like trying to sail for Grandma and Grandpa's beach with a west wind. Goodnight! Bob, Kim, Anna and Finn
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