Day 7 Brazil to Lanzarote
Noon Position 10deg 04N 22deg 52 W
Course – 29 Degrees Speed – 10.3 Knots Day’s Run – 248 Miles
Weather – Sunny with high clouds and 10′ (3m) swells from N
Wind – 14 knots on the nose
Today’s News
Yesterday afternoon something happened to the atmospheric conditions and suddenly we were hearing VHF conversations between ships and ports on the coast of Africa nearly 600 miles away. Normally VHF radios only go as far as line of sight between antennas. AIS (automated identification system) also works on VHF radio waves and we had ships marked all over the chart plotter. We are very close to the main shipping route between South America and Gibraltar. We also have oil tankers crossing our path heading between North America and oil rich West Africa.
Another thing happened yesterday, we got coated in red dust from the Sahara. Billions of cubic meters of Sahara sand crosses the Atlantic in the atmosphere each year. A lot of the sand in the Caribbean and Bahamascan be traced back to the Sahara.
We continue to motor in to 10 kt winds and swells using just the mizzen as a stabilizeras we are make steady progress towards Lanzarote.
JC