[password] rachel25,
[position] 09 06.29n 017 29.31w
[status] On passage from Brazil towards Cape Verde

We've been motoring into a light north wind all day, trying to get as far north as we possibly can, before the forecast trade wind surge arrives and we peel off to the north west towards the Cape Verde islands, some 500nm away. The prevailing trade wind is N/NNE, so we will be hard on the wind for this stage of the voyage.

We're in company, with the AIS telling us there are 51 vessels in the vicinity, two of which are Canadian War ships. We're sort of hoping there isn't something going on here that we don't know about. Could well be, for, apart from snippets from friends warning us we probably won't want to return back to the western world, we've had no international news since we left the Falklands on 24 February!

Meanwhile on Ithaka we have taken the opportunity of all the electrical power to make water, top up batteries and charge everything. We have poured 80 litres of reserve fuel into the fuel tanks, and washed and dried the laundry. Oh what domestic bliss!

[speed] 5.0 knots, motoring
[heading] 352 degrees true
Wind N 9 kts. Smooth sea. Sky 0% cloud. Baro 1002
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