Tuesday 27th February 2007
Lat 41 51S Long 48 57W
Miles to Norfolk, USA: 5,820 nm
Distance In 24 Hours: 118.2 nm
Average Speed In 24 Hours: 4.92 knots
Ranking: 4th

“Yesterday was thoroughly frustrating. The wind died mid morning but it was another 5 hours before the seas subsided so we banged about making little progress. But at least, apart from an hour and a half, we had some movement. In Suhaili I covered 9 miles in 24 hours in this region and it was so calm that as I lay on deck I heard absolutely nothing for 20 minutes, not even the slap of a wavelet on the hull. The problem was a ridge of high pressure across our path, we appeared to have got through it by nightfall, but there is still not much wind although strong N.Westerlies are forecast just north of here shortly.”

“The trouble is that this when SAGA needs the most attention and after about 3 hours sleep the previous night I was not at my best. The slightly better news is that I got the reacher up in 45 minutes instead of 4 hours but it still insists on playing up. I fell asleep in the evening sitting on my perch which is the step just inside the companionway where I can see all the instruments glowing at the chart table but am almost in the cockpit if needed. It is not perfect because there is nothing to hold you there but fortunately we did no sudden lurches.”

“The little bit of wind that arrived in the evening soon disappeared and we are back into light stuff again as the high has moved north on top of us again. I’m afraid I am going to be stuck here for a while, a few miles in almost any direction except east would give better conditions right now but by the time I got to that position the conditions there would have changed. These are the variables after all.. RKJ”