Day 118, Year 6 Atlantic Passage, Day 15-Fantastic Sailing
Date: Saturday, February 19, 2011 (1730 UTC)
Weather: Mostly Sunny; NE 9-14
Air Temperature: 81 degrees F
Latitude: 03 19.248 N
Longitude: 029 40.230 W
Miles Traveled: 1903.49
Miles to Go: 1993 (less than 2,000!!!)
Location: Passage from St. Helena to Caribbean (Grenada)

I’m most happy to report a second carefree, beautiful day of sailing in the Northeast trades. The wind is still blowing between 9 and 14 knots and depending on wind strength, we are either on a beam reach or the wind is just a little behind the beam. We are averaging better than 6 knots with speeds from 5.5 to 7.0 knots traveling more than 140 miles in a 24 hour period. The seas are a little choppy but it doesn’t seem to cause us a problem. We use all three sails during the day and furl the staysail at night. When a dark cloud goes over the wind speed increases to 13-14 knots for a short period and then back to 9-12. Windbird is basically sailing herself as we keep a watch out for ships and get in a lot of reading. We saw another ship this morning, this one going behind us heading southwest.

Today’s big task was rearranging the refrigerator and freezer. The freezer has been struggling to keep cold enough to assure that all the meat is frozen. We have been using the bottom of the freezer for meat and the top for drinks, bread, and leftovers. But this meant getting into the freezer every time we wanted a cold drink, bread for sandwiches, food for dinner, etc. So we took everything out of the top of the freezer and filled it with a down comforter carefully secured in a plastic bag. That surely filled the space and now we will only have to open the freezer every few days to get out meat. We can get out enough for a few meals and then stuff the comforter back in the top. The temperature is already going down so we think this should work. But making room in the fridge for all the things from the top of the freezer was tricky. We still have lots of carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage in the bottom part of the fridge. I can’t believe the veggies are lasting so long, but they are and that is great. As soon as some of that bulk is eaten, keeping the drinks in the top of the fridge won’t be such a problem. Mark doesn’t mind room temperature water, but I like mine COLD and I drink at least two liters of water each day. I continue to work on photos at night while on watch. I am now in Year 3 editing and naming some photos that never got done while in Indonesia. If I didn’t have my logs to refer to I would never know what I am looking at. It takes a bit of “remembering”, but I am getting the task done. After Year 3, I’ve still got Years 1 and 2 to go.

We passed the 2,000 miles-to-go point this afternoon so we are two-thirds of the way from South Africa to the Caribbean. By tomorrow morning we will have hit the half-way point between St. Helena and Grenada, so we are making progress. In fact, the time is passing incredibly quickly and I have only scratched the surface on those spring cleaning projects. So I’ll be spending my days cleaning and my nights completing photo projects from here to Grenada!