Friday, December 17, 2010

Passge to Mindelo: Day 4

We just had a visit and show by a group of 50 or more spotted Atlantic dolphins. They arrived quite suddenly. John spotted one on the starboard side just as I noticed a bubble circle on the port, and then they were all around us with more racing in from the distance. At one point I counted 12 in our bow wake, but a minute later there must have been 20 or so. Meanwhile, along the sides and off a little ways, a trio was practicing high jumps for their debut at Sea World. We thought the show was over and were heading back to the cockpit when a soloist performed the finale: a series of two 3+-meter jumps with twists and somersaults in the air. Spectacular!

On to the mundane: our 24-hour distance for day 4 was 133 nautical miles, all in a line heading south. That's a decent average speed of more than 5.5 knots, but it was two-thirds motor-sailing. Herb, our weather router, told us last night to continue along the 18W meridian to 18N latitude before we turn west. This is disappointing since it adds miles to the passage, and we're now looking at 8 days or total since a calm is expected over the weekend.

All is well aboard Solstice (and Orinoco too).

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2 comments:

Phil said...

Reading with rapt interest..get dolfin pix? - unreal!

Edee Dalke said...

Shirley and John! thought of you a lot and heard about your trip to La Palma. I was so sad we missed each other. Hope your are well. I'm in Barbados trying to decide what to do. Shirely thank you so much for all the notes. Hugs to doggie. Hugs, Edee