Passage to Mindelo: Day 7

The stats for day 7 are the same as day 6: 133.2 miles, 5.55 knots average. Maybe that's because we had the same light wind conditions and motor-sailed almost the whole time. When we use the SSB radio, we have to turn the engine off, but then our speed has been less than 4 knots, not good enough to get to Mindelo before dark tomorrow, so we turn the engine back on. (Now on day 8 we finally have enough wind to keep the engine off again.)

Besides checking in with Herb for weather in the evening, we use the SSB to check in with the Rum Runners Net, an informal radio network of English-speaking cruisers crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Our friends on Orinoco and Aquila are on the net, and that's how we keep up with them. We've also met a couple of the other boats but really haven't gotten acquainted yet. One boat, Stardust, is from Portland. They're circumnavigating but didn't seem too interested in getting to know us since they're cruising with people they've known for many miles now.

One difference today was that the dolphins were back. I'm pretty sure they were different ones because I think I'd recognize the wounds on one from the other day.

All is well aboard Solstice, but we're definitely looking forward to landfall tomorrow--on the solstice--and catching up with friends on Orinoco, Aquila, and Avocette, who is arriving on the 22nd.

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Passage to Mindelo: Day 5

We're finally actually pointing toward Mindelo again after almost three days of sailing south. Last night Herb advised us to go even further south--or even east--and we tried all night, but it was very slow. What little wind we had was directly behind us and not doing us any good since we aren't configured for true downwind sailing. Finally, this morning we decided to sail for awhile at 90 degrees off the wind. That took us west of south (yay!), but it was fast, and when the wind eased even more, we set a track west for a waypoint near Mindelo. That's been working out fine so far, and we can always turn south again if necessary.

Yesterday after the dolphin show, a pod of pilot whales came by. I was just as glad that they didn't get too close. And this morning we saw a big turtle. (John saw one yesterday too, but I was busy at the time.) Other than what I've reported, most of the sea life we've seen has been ships. We've been surprised how much traffic there is along the African coast. Meridian 18 west is almost like a highway, and the ships seem to move in convoys. (They probably don't, but it looks like it.) Now that we've turned, we expect to less traffic.

Yesterday was a slow day: only 109.5 nautical miles (4.56 knots average), but that's in a straight line, and we did turn.

All is well aboard Solstice, and by the way, we're officially in the tropics having crossed the Tropic of Cancer on day 3.

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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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