2002

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Ocean Planet Report
June 26, 2002

Position at 2318 UTC: 34 11N 75 14W. Wind southerly at 12-16, course 075 at 10-16kts.

I am just a little over 24 hours and 250 miles into my trip to the Azores. I was going to really take it easy for a couple of days, but something changed my plan . . . . .another sailboat! Ok, it was just a cruiser, but I couldn’t resist putting up the small genniker and blasting by them. Another reason is that I need to get NE soon enough to latch onto the bottom of a low pressure system tomorrow that should give me a big push across the pond.

Conditions are great right now, and last night the thunderstorms were quite mild, just a lot of rain. But things will get more interesting as we go along.

Aside from the task of sailing singlehanded across the Atlantic, one of the requirements for the Around Alone is to take and solve a few celestial sights to prove we can do it. Of course, you would never need to unless all your GPSs’ fail and you run out of batteries for the handheld, but it is a good exercise anyway. I started working on some today and was reminded that it has been a long time since I last did it. Taking the sight with the sextant is fine but messing about with the books and worksheets is a drag. I sure have been spoiled by my Nobeltec navigation software!

Thanks to everyone who made this qualifying trip possible. We raised just enough funds to get out of Charleston! Hopefully in the next few days some more good news will come in the mail at the office, and we can pay the last installment of the Around Alone entry fee (due July 1st!). All I can do now is sail safely and learn what I can from this trip.

At least I’m eating well. Stay tuned tomorrow for an announcement on nutrition…

Bruce