It’s Thursday morning and the wind has nearly gone away. It has been a great run since leaving Antigua, under sail nearly the entire way. Actually, had the main not been damaged, we would not have had to turn on the motor at all.
Not now. The wind that was so consistently pushing us along on a wonderful beam reach has gone aft and dropped to about 10kts. It seems that this will be the case as we make our way across a high pressure area for the next 24 hours at least.
As is the case north of Bermuda, the winds are driven by a series of high and low pressure areas that exit the US East Coast year round. In the winter the lows are stronger, rushing down from Canada but the constant battle of weather and wind is the rule.
That’s so unlike the Caribbean where the wind is nearly always from and easterly direction except when a tropical low makes it’s way west from Africa.
We are a little more than 200 miles from Bermuda and roughly half of the way home. As consistent as the winds were for the first half of the trip, we will have the opposite for the second half, when the wind direction and speed will change on a near daily basis.
The forecast for the coming days, and it will surely change as the we make our way north, calls for 10kts on our stern for at least the next 24 hours and that will be followed by a virtual collapse of the wind on Friday. After a small low comes through the area we should again be able to sail, perhaps for a day with strong SW winds, perhaps in the 25-35kt range. That’s a lot of wind but at least we will be on a broad reach so the apparent wind will be less daunting.
So, as we cross the front, perhaps on Saturday, we will face, well we don’t know what for sure as it could be a brief period of NE winds before the wind clocks back to the SW. However, there is enough uncertainty in the forecast that it will be a few days until that becomes clearer.
One thing for certain though, is that the second half of the trip will involve wind from just about every direction and periods of no wind at all. Welcome to the North Atlantic.
So, for now we continue to motor along and the weather is getting somewhat cooler by the day and the seawater temperature has dropped about 5 degrees as well, however, I can’t give you a number as my thermometer isn’t properly calibrated. The cooler temperatures are very welcomed as it’s been hot and stuffy down below with everything buttoned up.
After days of “sporty” sailing I suppose that it’s a welcome break to be motoring in increasingly flat seas and I took advantage of the relative calm rinse down the cockpit with fresh water and to wipe the cabin which had gotten pretty nasty with salt tracked down below. It’s at times like these that the watermaker really shines.
So there you have it. We are about half way home and things are good onboard Pandora. Half way or not, I am anxious to have this delivery behind me and to be back home with Brenda.
The title of this post says that this is the boring part of the trip. Perhaps that’s not completely accurate as the weather and constantly shifting conditions will be anything but boring. However, I expect that the motor will be on for a good amount of that time so it surely won’t be nearly as much fun as blasting along at near double digit speeds is aboard Pandora.
I understand that Brenda got the Spring Cleaning Bug a few days ago and cleaned and dusted the house from top to bottom. That’s good and she knows how happy clean makes me too.
Sunday is Mother’s day and I am bummed that I won’t be with her. She’s going to see my mother who I have neglected nearly all winter. It will be a good day with two terrific mother’s spending time together.
Thanks Brenda, for taking care of Mom.
See you soon.