Fog, and a Plan

Day: 72

Noon Position: 48 25S 28 45W

Course/Speed: ENE 7

Wind: NW 20

Sail: Working jib full, wind port quarter

Bar: 1005

Sea: NW 4

Sky: FOG, fog, and drizzle

Cabin Temp: 56

Water Temp: 42

Miles last 24-hours: 161

Miles since departure: 9402

The theme of these last days is fog, a thick, wet fog not satisfied to simply occlude one’s view of the horizon; no, it has to double the insult by coating the pilot house windows and my glasses if I’m on deck, rendering boat and crew blinded near and far.

Except for radar, on watch this last thousand miles and into the foreseeable future, we would have been making our 7 knots of foreward on a hope and a prayer. But I sometimes wonder if it’s a good thing that the radar sees nothing hour after hour. Surely there must be something out there to ping. I wipe a window and peer past the bow for what the radar must be missing. I see only gray, and then I recall the last 72 days of empty sea.

I’ve been running Mo easy, just a headsail, the big genoa if the winds are light, the working genoa when they pipe up. We’ve been fast enough on that rig (162 and 161 miles the last two days) and I’ve wanted to get rested for later in the week, which portends to be exciting. With Mo minding her business, I’ve been sleeping full nights, napping in the afternoon, and making big dinners, because come Thursday, I may be on duty for some time.

There is a biggish, fast moving low approaching from the NW with winds on the trailing edge upwards of 40 knots. Because its dropping down diagonally (it began its career up near Uruguay) rather than marching easterly like its civilized brethren in the 50s and 60s below us, how to position Mo has been a puzzle. In fact, there hasn’t seemed much I could do but wait for it to overtake us and be ready. Hence my course due east.

But as of this morning, there seems to be an opening. At ten o’clock, I altered course to NE and have plotted a target of 48N and 27W. This position appears to be just high enough to get above the eye and avoid the strong southerly winds I’d get (albeit briefly) a mere half a degree lower and one degree further west. If I’m lucky and can work even further east than 27W, I may avoid the hottest of the winds and be able to maintain an easterly course throughout the blow.

We shall see soon enough.

—

6pm. Winds quite calm now. We are close hauled NE. Been on deck tuning Monte and sails this last hour and I could swear the breeze carries the rich funk of animal life. That and the sudden sense of cold makes me feel there is a big berg to windward that hosts a penguin colony. The radar could not disagree more.