We get really well along the western side of the Bermuda Triangle, outside of course, haha. The winds are good and it is already day 5 when we undo the reefs for the first time on this leg. Yuana is so nicely running and we enjoy this trip so far.
Twice each day we talk to Gianni on the nearby boat EUTIKIA over the VHF Radio. Gianni and his wife have circumnavigated the world during the last 10 years and are now on their way home to Venice. We have lots of common topics and reflect the weather forecasts and further routing strategies.
There is also a friend of Gianni on board. It didn’t take long to discover that the friend is living in Buttrio. Buttrio is a place in Friaul, northeastern Italy, and well known to all of my colleagues from former work.
So it was high time for telling a true joke which happened in our own offices in the Friaul region: Our American Sales person was there to discuss an project. The running gag was, that the American continuously understood ‘dear boy’ when his local partner (out of a unfavorable habit) in fact was badly swearing time after time in his local language Friulano.
So we had a good laugh with Gianni and his crew over the radio. Old times, good times. OMG, how much I loved being together with my peers from Udine…! Missing you guys!
Actually we are approaching the latitude of around 32 degrees where a 3000km long high pressure ridge separates the westwards flowing winds in the south from the eastwards flowing winds in the north. We need to cross the high to enter that eastward flowing wind belt. It would bring us back to Europe.
Ahead of entering this area we study the wind maps carefully. We download them daily via satellite. There are four different models and along with our own weather observations, we decide which model to believe and where to cross the high pressure ridge.
The ones who follow our track on the webpage may have asked themselves why we do funny curves sometimes rather than following straight lines? This all has to do with the winds as well. If the easterly winds turn somewhat north on our way north, then we would do a curve towards west because we don’t want to sail too high against the wind. Uncomfortable for people and equipment.
The next post will be about crossing of the high pressure ridge.
Sailed distances:
Day 6: 152 nm
Day 5: 151 nm
Day 4: 156 nm
Atlantic accomplished. Twice. 