27 Apr, 07 – 21.35
15.3580N,43.5178W
24 hr progress: 36.2 Nautical Miles (1 nm = 1.85 km)
Distance left to Antigua (straight line): 1034 Nautical Miles ( 1912 km)
Distance completed: 2020 NM (3737 km)
Wave height: 10-12 ft, Winds: 20-25 knots ENE, Bearing: 270 -310 degrees.
More of the same, awful conditions. Morning squall. Clear skies. Squall again. Clear skies, More rain.
The sea color keeps alternating between silver, grey and blue to match an equally confused sea.
Struggling to keep course amongst other things on my mind, including fixing the water maker, adjusting the height of the radar reflector.
The breeze is getting distinctly warmer and so its the water temperature as we head further south and also towards the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. Today felt exceptionally hot inside the cabin. I suspect the red paint on the outside as well as the black solar panels must be heating up quite a bit with all the absorbed sunlight. In hindsight, it would have been better to paint the boat white or silver so as to reflect more of the sunlight off the surface. It just so happened that the boat was used in a previous attempt sponsored by Virgin Atlantic and we decided to keep the original color of the boat, as it would be easier to spot from the air in case of an emergency.
Took the afternoon swim and found that the marine life under the boat is increased since a few days ago and gotten a bit more colorful. Noticed a beautiful white – yellow-blue fish with a black stripe down its body, swimming with its mate by the side of the boat, from stern to bow, turning around at the bow and swimming back again to the stern, turning around and back again to the bow. The did not alter routine even as a shark turned up around feeding time to feast on the tuna underneath the boat. It seems that the sharks are quite picky about the type of fish the feed on and not so mindless after all. Quite entertaining to watch these two fish calmly swim alongside the boat while hundreds of others swam for their lives.
I'm saving my energy till the weather improves. At least till the waves make up their mind which way they want to go.
B
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Fish swimming alongside the hull
Another approaching rain storm
Sunset taken at 21.59 GMT
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