We spent yesterday afternoon and last night motorsailing through a benign trough of low pressure. At one point last night the sea was almost dead calm and the wind less than two knots. A real “mill pond.” As we popped out of the cumulus cloud cover this morning, the barometer began to rise again, and the winds started to fill in, first from the northwest and then from the south-southeast. Just as predicted! We have spent most of the day close reaching into a fresh breeze with one- to two-meter seas. Not the most comfortable, but at least we are not burning dinosaur juice and listening to the roar of our recently installed (more on that later) diesel engine. We have been spending a lazy day catching up on sleep, reading and writing. Even though we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, we are still experiencing nice warm days and pleasantly cool evenings.
Clarisse made fabulous chicken and asparagus crepes for dinner last night, and we are diving into some of the meals that Cate pre-cooked before the passage. Great meals, not much galley time. The way we like it. So, otherwise, the day has been most uneventful. Also as we like it. We don’t even know who was elected the next president. Not that we care or that it really matters anyway.
Still no fish, but at our last check in, we were still about seven miles ahead of “Bossanova.”