Tues 27th Oct09 - Day 18 from Canaries
Crossed Equator today just a few moments before midday - so close in timimg, was unbelievable!! Beautiful, sunny, sailing weather with good ESE wind and just a medium-sized (2.5m) SSE swell - no great crashing about!
I'm sitting now with music playing, munching on olives and crunchy 'tostadas' with a creamy dip, sipping cranberry juice (!) - as given also to Neptune/Poseidon by way of thanks for a safe passage!!
Boat speed regularly up to 7.5 knots - pity about the foul current! And we're finally managing to head roughly due S - wind has backed just enough.
Had a call via the satphone from Gary Burgess of BBC Guernsey for a quick 'live' update at 9:10 am, and then another from WRI to discuss weather over next few days. Seems these conditions are set to continue for a good 3 days or more - but then I could find the St Helena High spreading right across my path - we'll have to wait and see!
Two more flying fish on deck this morning - and occasional sightings of a solitary petrel, gliding so close to the waves, its wing tips touch the water...
Our consistent good speed since yesterday of around 7 knots, giving SOG of 6 knots, was reflected in today's noon-to-noon DMG: 138M
(If it weren't for that foul current, it might have been well over 150M...!)
At noon, we were 550 M NE of Brazil (Garcas) & just over 100 M ESE of the St Peter and St Paul Rocks - used by sailors in olden times to check their calculated position on their way up and down the Atlantic.