[password]seabird14
[position] 14 57.9 S 007 19.9 W
[heading] 290T
[speed] 8.5
[weather] 3.5kts SE, seas 1m SW, 1015 mb
[status] DAY 2 3533 nm to Barbados. Motorsailing at 8.5kt 290T, no sails. We tried and we tried to sail last night, and at 0400 this morning we finally had to succumb to motor as the 5kts of wind was having us flog our code zero and our 1kt speed was less than inspiring at the start of this long passage. We did take on 300L of diesel in St Helena at a pretty penny (pence?) so we have a bit more range, but knowing that we must cross the doldrums where motoring is a necessity, we need to be conservative on fuel. So we start this passage much how we arrived in St Helena, with an encroaching H pressure system from the south dissipating all the SE trade winds away, and us crossing fingers that the wind fills in as forecast this evening. We passed "Mount Bonaparte" in the wee hours, a sea mount named after St Helena's most famous former resident in exile. Aptly named, it is a massive sea mount, its uppermost area larger than St Helena, but relatively "short" we may say, coming up only to a depth of 350ft. Hah! The things we entertain ourselves with while sailing along at 1.2kts under a starlit sea here in the S Atlantic!
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