Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Leg 3, Blog 6, June 21, 2025

Well, not a lot to report on today. We have made good progress through the night and we are now just 300 miles from Horta. Winds have held and we are averaging 6.5 knots (150 miles per day).

For breakfast I baked us a Yam. I was super excited and ate it right away. Randall opted for his “normal” breakfast of oatmeal/muesli. Not too be left out, I ate 1/2 of the yam, and then had my oatmeal.

In the middle of the day I noticed a moaning sound coming from our auto-tiller. Mōli is quite difficult to steer by hand, so the majority of time we use the electronic auto-tiller. That is as long as we have electricity, and if we do not, we switch to our Monitor Windvane or, of course, by hand.

We were sailing slightly downwind which does put some stress on the system. The moaning sound indicated that the auto-pilot system was working harder than it should have. Above is a video of the auto-tiller working – apologies in advance as it is kind of like watching ice melt.

The ship doctor diagnosed the “moaning” problem as too much stress on the rotating tube, so he prescribed a dose of oil that he delivered in his best Tin Man-esque oil can.

We have noticed Portuguese Man o’ War https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/portuguese-man-o-war.html since shortly after leaving Newfoundland. But we are coming across them more often now, perhaps once every three minutes. These are much bigger and meatier than the ones we see in Northern California. These ones are bigger than my fist, with tentacles extending at least several feet.

Interestingly, they are not Jellyfish, but rather are Siphonophore’s which are a separate species. They were given their name because they resemble an 18th century Portuguese war ship under full sail as seen below. We are getting worried as were are nearing Portuguese waters. Not sure if Randall remembered his pirate flag….

For dinner I gave up my Mexican genre and switched to Torta Espanola – my favorite Spanish dish. Two large potato’s, one sweet onion and 13 eggs and lots of olive oil.

Not bad for two hungry sailors…

I will leave you with the sunset of last night….