May 2nd

Trip metre 5336

Distance to Horta 1504

Distance in 24 hrs 81

Distance made good 69

1300UTC

Calm night with very little wind.  Wind slowly coming more from the North, more forward of the beam.  Nice sunrise but no extra wind strength.  Clear skies again so the solar panels are very happy.  No issues with power and I only put the big 110w panel out, if needed, to top up the 2 x 50a batteries.  Starlink is the biggest consumer of power - about 3 amps.  Rationing my data usage so the 50 Gb I pay for will last a month.  YouTube chews data, and it's easy to get distracted.  Funny to be shopping on Amazon from the middle of the Atlantic!  I saw my AIS position marked on Marine Traffic, a "satellite position", no name of the boat, but it matched my actual position exactly.   Comforting to know that my AIS is transmitting.

 May 1st 

Trip metre 5145

Distance to Horta 1573

Distance in 24 hrs 78

Distance made good 68

1300 UTC

After a rainy cloudy day yesterday, the night was very calm and cloudy with almost no wind.  This morning at sunrise the breeze started and at the same time I was surrounded by a large pod of small dolphins.  The first I've seen on this leg.  The sky is clear and I see on Windy that the front is now behind me.  The swells are building from the NNW about 2m.  Still smooth sailing though so they must be from a storm elsewhere.  Windy tells me I'm in for a lot of beating and zero wind patches.  So expect the worst and hope for the best.  I took stock of my water supplies, seeing this trip might take way longer than expected. So far I have used 28 litres in 10 days and I have 122 litres left, plus 5 litres in a can in the cockpit that I use for rinsing off after a salt water bath.

Video from yesterday evening

Which coffee should I choose tonight?  Bart will understand - thanks Mrs Bart. Been saving some for trip home

This is how I take care of my plastic waste. This is 10 days worth. Glass and tins go over the side. There is no food waste - I eat everything!

Leaving the tropics. Maybe it will cool down now

 April 30 Day 11

Trip metre 5067 nm

Distance to Horta 1641 nm

Distance sailed in 24 hrs 92 nm

Distance made good 82 nm

1300 UCT

As expected the rain and squalls caught up with us.  Just after dark!  Had to drop the main in huge gusts and pouring rain.  No sooner than everything was tied down and closed up but the wind and rain dropped.  Even saw some stars and almost full moon through gaps in the clouds.  Went out to rehoist the mainsail and discovered that the halyard was caught up on something.  In the dark I could not see what the problem was so sailed most of the night under poled out jib only.  Speed was slow and I lost out many miles.  At dawn I saw the halyard had spun around the mast and hooked on the gennaker halyard block.  It was easy enough to flick off standing on the bow.  Main up again in fading wind and dropped the jib pole.  Heading a bit more northerly.  I was hoping to hang onto the favourable wind for longer but I think the slow night has left me behind.  Lots of ominous squalls around this morning but so far no lightning.  Weetabix and coffee for breakfast.

 April 29 Day 10

Trip metre 4975

Distance to Horta 1723

Distance sailed 80 nm

Distance made good 67 nm

1300 UTC

Had good sailing yesterday.  Wind picked up and went from 1 reef to 2 and later 3 reefs.  Wind up to about 18 knots just forward of the beam, sailing too fast into quickly growing waves.  Slowed down to just over 4 knots to reduce pounding.  Wind slowly reduced and the reefs came out one at a time. By evening the wind went aft and got very light during the night.  Slow sailing on a calm sea.  Now running goose winged for the first time this trip.  Lots of clouds with some squalls in the distance.  There is very little sargassum weed now, only a few individual pieces from time to time.  I'm planning to head more north later today hopefully to go behind the lightning forecast to the north of me at the moment.    I expect rain though.  All is fine on board.

Goose winged.  Slipping along at 3 and a bit knots.

 April 28 Day 9

0900 St Martin time

Trip meter 4895

Distance to Horta 1790nm

Distance sailed in 24 hrs 89nm

Distance made good 78nm

Yesterday nice calm sailing, nothing exciting happened.  Wind was not constant but between 5 and 10 knots.  Sea very flat, overnight was also smooth with light winds.  I got plenty of sleep with nothing else to do, except play games on my tablet.   Morning brought more wind  which quickly picked up so I went from 1 reef to 2 reefs.  Seas picked up too and pounding again.  Still headed in the right direction though.  Cloudy with squalls around.  Finished the last bread yesterday, got to find something different. for breakfast

April 27 Day 8

0900 (St Martin time)

Trip metre 4806

Distance to Horta 1868

Distance sailed in 24 hrs 78nm

Distance made good 65nm

Yesterday was a good day.  The wind settled from the SSE averaging about 8 kts.  After some pounding in the beginning the sea also settled down so I could open the hatches.  Nice sunset.

"Saw" a ship on AIS 12.5 mile away, lost signal at 17 miles.  Then saw a ship about 4 miles away that closed to within half a mile.  We had a chat on VHF.  Doing 8 knots to my 4 knots so disappeared over the horizon.  The night was very smooth sailing with the wind weakening and Nuts slowing down. Slightly more breeze since dawn.  Then another ship appeared on AIS., called Black Pearl, 105m 3 masted yacht.  Chatted to them too.  They left St Martin 2 days ago, doing 12 knots, ETA Ponta Delgada on 5th May at 1600.  Maybe they can give me lift.

Another  cooing lesson:

Fry onion

Add bully beef

Stir and fry a bit more to blend flavours and add fragrance to the ambiance of Nuts dining hall

Dig up some "fresh" potatoes from  a locker 

Sprinkle some magic hot H2O potion and stir

Then add sautéed onions and bully and garnish freshly prepared potatoes  with pseudo gravy barbecue sauce

Finish off with freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkle of salt

Must be a Gordon Ramsey special as I'm in the kitchen from hell

 April 26

Distance to Horta 1933

Distance sailed sailed 85nm

Distance made good 68nm

Yesterday was bouncy beating but on a good course.  Wind eased overnight and slept well.  I could free off sheets for the first time on this voyage in the early hours but it did not last long.  Wind suddenly changed to the NE and I had to tack.  I don't want to go further North for 2 days to avoid lightning storms forecast in that area.  Now there is a 1m swell from the North, a slightly smaller one from the SE and a wind chop from the NE added on top which makes life on a 5m boat very uncomfortable.  But Nuts is fine and behaving well.  Just wish I could rely on the weather forecast.  It is difficult to plan a route when  the forecast changes so often.  This NE wind was not forecast. I guess the squalls in the distance are messing everything up.  No ships seen for several days, not even on AIS, set on a 10 mile range.