Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Leg 3, Blog 11, July 1, 2024

We are skirting across the North Atlantic with less than 150 miles to go until the island of Madeira, with Funchal as its capital. We should make landfall tomorrow very late afternoon.

I awoke from my afternoon sleep to discover that after almost two days of motoring, the high pressure system abated and the wind arrived. Randall had just finished setting the sails.

Here is Randall inspecting his signature wing-on-wing sail formation.

It felt so good to have the engine turned off. It had worked hard and consumed two cups of motor oil during these last days.

Nothing better than full sails and (almost) smooth seas.

Even Randall can take a break in the shade and enjoy the warmth of the mid-day sun.

I take the sun seriously and completely cover up. I can get a burn in minutes.

Our dermatologist’s would be proud of us. Fashion-wise, you can see that one of us shops at GQ and the other at Sports Basement.

Dinner was a soup with “chicken”, rice, onion, garlic, ginger and the last of our fresh vegetables: zucchini, red bell pepper and one leek.

This Saragasso Weed did not make it into the soup. Known as Sargassam, it is a brown seaweed that always floats, and we are just starting to see it. https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/sargassum.html Randall mentioned that we will gradually see a lot more of this, and it will cause problems fouling our aqua generator.

The “Saragasso Sea” is an area in the North Atlantic that is above the South American continent and below the Caribbean floating around the Gulf Stream and the Canary Current. In 1492, Christopher Columbus was reported to be worried that the weed would engulf his ship (so we are in good company). https://seaweed.ie/sargassum/sargasso.html

Well, night has fallen and I am now wearing a t-shirt at midnight. We have had several clear evenings in a row, and it makes it quite enjoyable to star gaze when the moon falls below the horizon.

Here is my closing video of the North Atlantic at midnight. See you in Funchal.