0830 AST 2825n 6716w wind SSW 15kts course 130 sp 7.5kts at 66 deg off the bow under full sail; partly cloudy some rain squalls around.
Weird stuff happens out here...and then you wake up. But last night's oddity was real. Matt, on watch, spotted a green light ahead on the port bow and no other lights, and nothing on radar. Correctly calling JFK to the cockpit we pondered the question together. Had to be a sailboat. But we were heading SE and his green light told us he was heading westerly...but from where? Europe? Africa? Made no sense, as from there you would be further South, in the Trades. On the radar finally appeared a small target 3 miles ahead; and a minute later his AIS radio signal popped up and it told us he was heading NNW at just 3 knots. Then another target appeared on the radar some 5 miles away on our starboard bow. Immediately Matt and I started hashing out our plot...a drug rendezvous into which we had unhappily intruded....and we were captive...and then ransomed...and, well you get the idea. Some ten minutes later we passed, and we could clearly see just 400 yards away a sailboat, without sails, under motor. We did not receive a call from her on our VHF radio, and I decided not to call them. Were they just poodling around mid-Atlantic; or in trouble; or making trouble? If the former we figured they were just drunk or asleep and the autopilot had stopped working. If they were in trouble, they would have called us on vhf or signalled us. Anyhow, they did a 180 ten minutes later to fall in behind us, which was really strange as minutes later it put them right in the middle of a big rainburst that we had just dodged. Maybe they were short on water and intentionally driving into rain to catch some? A mystery it shall remain.
The winds have been, amazingly, exactly as forecast on our downloaded weather charts and by our wx man Chris Parker; and so after some light winds last night as we passed through a trough, we are now enjoying a glorious dawn sail on forecasted South Westerlies, and our navigation plan thus far is working perfectly: we should be turning South at about 27n 64w and then looking for the Trades to head to St Martin. John and Nancy, with Bob and Matt Glaser.
In 2014 Adventuress sailed to Europe. She made landfall in Muxia Spain; then England. After cruising the English South Coast, and the Channel Islands, she wintered at Woodbridge, England. The next three summers we cruised England, Holland, Norway, Denmark, France, Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar. For the foreseeable future Adventuress will sail in Europe. UPDATE: it's October 2021 and we are sailing her back to the USA: Transat passage will be Nov/Dec: expect to be in Florida end of January.
