Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Azores Madeira Leg

Day 3

Sunday, June 29

Noon Position: 35 54.7N 22 42.3W

Course/Speed: SE 6.5

Wind: has clocked from SW to NE at too little to sail

Sail: Motoring

Noon Miles: 161

Total Miles: 325

Harmon made hot dogs tonight, dogs on toast with another crunchy slaw. In such heat, salad is king, and we both noshed away quietly enjoying the cool crunch. As may have become obvious, Harmon does most of the cooking. Ok, I fess, all. Because he is good at it, and more to the point, because he cares. By now Harmon has realized that if he wants something he enjoys eating, and he does, it’s best if he prepares it.

Not a greatly exciting leg at moment. We motored all night and all day, and in the evening raised sail to 10 knots on port quarter which has so far refused to mature into an actual sailing wind.

Add to this a peculiarly large swell coming from the east into which we drop and slosh. There is no easterly wind anywhere east of us, none at all. So whence cometh this old, four-foot sea at seven second crests?

The lack of wind and this swell means the sails slat and bang as we drop. Pragmatism says we should lower them; optimism keeps them up.

The little red engine, a Danish made Bukh of 48 horsepower, continues its good work hour after hour. I was 26 years old when it was installed in this boat. It had ticked over 9,000 hours on the engine clock when the clock died some years ago; Harmon and I have put another 950 hours on it just since our Homer, Alaska departure last summer. Such an engine! It has my total admiration.

Overnight phosphorescence has become intense. There’s the torpedo-like trail aft of the prop, dull bluey-white and too faint to be photographed; around this flash some unknown-to-me sea creatures bright as exploding stars. On another order of brightness is the splash of the bow wave that has the bluey hew of a flash bulb. All are in that same ghostly shade of the Arctic’s Northern Lights. I tried for a good picture, but nothing more than splotches so far…

Stars still seem fainter than I expect, but the Milky Way is distinct, and it is a pleasure now to see Scorpio each night to the SW. Scorpio is a constellation that will follow us into the southern hemisphere and for which it is doubly attractive.   By morning we should be back to fast sailing for our last two days into Funchal.

Or so says the forecast…