Day 2 - Santa Maria to Dakar via Mindelo
By Sharon Ferris-Choat
- 14:59 UTC
- 031°17'.351N
- 025° 52'.142W
- TWS 8.5kn has been as low as 0.2kn six hours ago.
- TWD 330° to 008°
- COG 177°
- SOG 6.6kn
- Distance to Mindelo 860nm
- Distance from Santa Maria 343nm
Rain squalls all around us have taken the wind away this morning. This is when I love the fact we can turn the engine on (the iron sail) and head on the desired heading at a good average speed. When you are racing that's not an option, you have to grow patience and a lot of it, and sail to the next puff of wind, then the next one. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days.
More sun sights, jobs being completed while a rolling swell with loads of heat and water glare from the midday sun makes you add sunblock several times a day. It's only going to get hotter as we head south.
Keeping everyone hydrated and eating enough is the key. I just had the best 2 hours sleep this morning since leaving Horta and while I was snoring (yes I woke myself up) Heather, Molly, Bianca and Hadley were pulling discarded fishing gear from the ocean. Since then Lungi and I have added to the pile.
We are 426nm away from the closet Canarie Island and still we have human trash. Incredibly sad, I don't want to imagine what's below as Emily Duncan a Maiden researcher friend working in Horta told us the abandoned items on the bottom of the ocean are killing sea life critical for the eco system of all life and our survival.
What can we do as one team of global earth sitters? Let's face it in comparison to time we are here for such a small amount of it.Yet our actions have such a big impact on our planet.
I loved in the Azores everything that can be in glass was, like the good old days with milk etc in glass again, they recycle. They have simply taken the share amount of one use plastic out of the system which I thought was a great start!
Everyone is catching up on sleep, reports, teaching/coaching and future planning while others are learning and absorbing as many new tricks and procedures as possible. We have had the cold front pass us this morning and now waiting for the NE wind to build and then we will be off again. It's building slowly but surely!
