Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Leg 3, Blog 5, June 20

From the Google Map shot above you can see that we are roughly one-half way across. But as Horta is 1,000 or so miles off the mainland, we are actually only 450 miles from the island.

All well and good, except that there is this big fat high-pressure system (filled with no wind) situated directly between us and Horta (circled in the picture above). This makes routing a bit more difficult as we will need to stay north of the high as long as possible. This makes us take a slightly longer route as we go around. That said, we are still making good time.

Woke up this morning to a pod of Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins. Sorry to report that as it was early in the morning and they had not yet had their coffee, so they were not super sociable.

Due to the pattern of movement of the high-pressure system, the winds have been in constant change. This morning they finally settled into a distinct pattern and Randall decided that it was time to fly the famous Mōli wing-on-wing formation. We head down-wind, and open up Jib 1 (technically a Genoa) to port and Jib 2 to starboard with the main fully extended to port as well. This enables us to sail steady and fast, but we have to make sure to keep an eye on wind direction.

Randall examining his work.

Technically speaking, flying wing-on-wing enables us to sail 6.9 knots per hour with only 10.2 knots of apparent wind. We will take this deal any day of the week!

Happy Big Big Birthday to Jeff Mindham. I promise I will catch the next one!!

Happy Midsummer to my Swedish Friends and Family. A very happy and festive day filled with fun and tradition (dancing around the May Pole!)