Sunday at sea and St Valentine’s Day today. Still sailing along swiftly in quite strong winds. We celebrated with popcorn, hot chocolate and banana bread on the quarterdeck this afternoon and pink iced cookies after lunch (chunky tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches). There were lightening and squalls overnight last night, but the squalls just brought a little rain, no real wind, so apart from the crew standing by in rain gear and rubber boots, there wasn’t much to be done except admire the lightening show.
SHIP’S WORK: Sunday at sea means only the essential jobs are done, and no painting or maintenance work. It’s the cook’s day off so the 3 people on galley rotation cook, and the rest of the day-men lay in to help wash dishes. The sun has no respect for Sundays, so our navigators were still out at noon taking their sights and figuring our latitude. We’ve been ‘running down the latitude’ on this passage: heading almost due west at a constant latitude, just as ships would have done for many years before accurate chronometers gave them an accurate longitude: find
the right latitude and sail along it until you get there.
FROM: Mindelo, Sāo Vicente, Cape Verde
TOWARDS: The West Indies
TIME ZONE: ZD+2
NOON POSITION: 16°40.9’N /039°08.1’W
DAYS RUN: 141nm
PASSAGE LOG: 810nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 1,267nm
COURSE AND SPEED: West by North (CMGT 273°T)
WIND: Force 5, North East by North
WEATHER: 6/8 cloud cover (cumulus), air temp 78F (26°C), barometer reading 1022 millibars, visibility good
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: approx 6-8 feet, North East by East
SAILS SET: Topsails and staysails, fore t’gallant