Tuesday 6^th  December  2022

12^o 57.0 N  53^o 19.7 W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: UTC -3)

Hmmmm!

When I said last night that we should “get some sailing tomorrow”, I suspect that was viewed by many as a positive statement. Indeed, I meant it as such. And when dawn broke this morning, we found enough wind to sail -  but close hauled, on port tack.    The sun was shining, the sea was blue and – importantly – quite flat despite a deep background swell and so, unaccustomed as we are to “sailing to weather”, all was good with the world.

Now the prevailing winds in the west Atlantic are, as you know, trade winds – WESTERLY – trade winds.   These south easterly winds are the product of a trough – or weak cold front – and along the edge of any front – weak or not – one can expect unsettled weather – conditions which were fast approaching as we cleared away the remains of Peter’s excellent omelette lunch and settled down to an afternoon of gentle sailing. 

By 15.30 we were in among the tropical showers again. They’re not so much squalls – the wind under them does not seem particularly strong – but they are wet – VERY wet!

Cue a disturbed and disjointed afternoon and evening:   Sailing for a bit – then motoring to  thread our way through them - Sailing for a bit – etc. ad nauseam.

So – 460 miles to Union Island - or just 360 to Barbados where we’ll likely stop for fuel – rather depends how much fuel we use between the showers!   Either way – 48 hours of motoring are in prospect Wednesday and Thursday.

Wild Life report

We must be approaching land! 

We have begun to see more wild life over the last couple of days. So what have we seen?  Well, frankly not much.  Over the last 15 days:

Whales:                               0

Dolphiins:                           3 – Today            a pod of just three Spotted Dolphins , stayed fir may be 2 minutes ….. L

Frigate bird                        1 – Today – (Interesting: it’s a sea bird that can’t land on water. They sink! Their feathers absorb water)

A Frigate Bird - male

Cory Shearwater               Lots  over the last three days

A Cory Shearwater 

Storm Petrel                      Several - about 5 days ago

Flying Fish                           Loads and loads.  Quite  a lot smaller than we are used to seeing – much more delicate- - like chocolate: Chiz Chiz   

Brown Booby                    2  Today

?? Egret                              1  - (chocolate thief No 2)  Sunday

So, not a lot really

Seaweed Update

I mentioned that there’s a lot of seaweed around  - big patches of it - and speculated as to its origins.

I now learn that it is Sargassum (that of the Sargasso Sea) and these patches are blown onto accumulate on the windward shores of the Caribbean islands. According to Inge van Berkel:

“It is an immense problem for the Caribbean, because where the beaches are covered in Sargassum,

tourists will leave and locals too as it's so unhealthy ………

It is an awful sight and when it lies there, rotting, it stinks - beyond description.”