Halfway

 Halfway

December 1, 2016

Last evening we reached the halfway mark. We are now in the tropics, about as far south of the equator as Grenada is north of it. The time zone is -1 UTC, with Eastern Brazil at -2. And it is the first of Dec. Air temp is 25 and water temp 28. All of these things are making it seem like we are on a homeward stretch.

In the past week we have only seen two freighters go by. Some days we can get the other BPO boats on SSB, but not always. Bluewind, (the BPO Brazilian boat that went to the med), is also crossing the Atlantic now. They and Tahawas and No Regrets will be meeting in Fernando, an island off the northeast coast of Brazil. We'd love to see them again, but would the detour would shortchange us on Christmas time. It is 300nm back SW to the marina at Jacare.

Now that the wind is a bit higher, about 15kn, we have been traveling wing and wing. It certainly has been easier to sleep without the spinnaker up overnight as the wind direction keeps shifting around. We each spend about 5 hours on watch and napping, and another 5 sleeping. We can usually travel between 5 and 7 knots. The wind instruments stopped working, but you can feel where the wind is coming from and guess the strength. Just not as convenient. Otherwise, Maggie, is doing well.