The highlight of the past 24 hours was having a pair of whales swim close to the boat. As far as we could make out they appeared to be a couple of large Humpback whales.
There have also been a lot of White-chinned petrels about. Interestingly most of them have been of a form that is also known as the Spectacled or Tristan petrel which is easily identified by the fact that the white chin patch is extended onto the sides of the head and ends in a loop, like a pair of spectacles, around the eyes. This form of petrel only breeds in the Tristan da Cunha group of islands which are over 1 000 miles south east of us!
We have seen a few Storm-petrels recently, too.
Three ships have passed us in the last few hours, two container ships and a large tanker.
We are now well and truly in the centre of the high pressure system, motorsailing in almost no wind. The weather remains very hot so we have rigged a makeshift awning over the cockpit and are seriously considering stopping for a quick swim. The water here is over 2 1/2 km deep, but crystal clear, so it should be good for swimming! We are in fact sailing over a relatively shallow ridge at the moment and soon the depths will drop to over 4 000 metres! After that it will remain deep until we start to approach Tristan da Cunha and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Although the water is clear we are still passing large quantities of garbage: plastic boxes, bags, bottles, jerry cans, polystyrene, light bulbs (!), polypropylene netting, etc! With all this junk floating about one wonders what the whales are sucking up as they filter krill through their baleen?
There have also been a lot of White-chinned petrels about. Interestingly most of them have been of a form that is also known as the Spectacled or Tristan petrel which is easily identified by the fact that the white chin patch is extended onto the sides of the head and ends in a loop, like a pair of spectacles, around the eyes. This form of petrel only breeds in the Tristan da Cunha group of islands which are over 1 000 miles south east of us!
We have seen a few Storm-petrels recently, too.
Three ships have passed us in the last few hours, two container ships and a large tanker.
We are now well and truly in the centre of the high pressure system, motorsailing in almost no wind. The weather remains very hot so we have rigged a makeshift awning over the cockpit and are seriously considering stopping for a quick swim. The water here is over 2 1/2 km deep, but crystal clear, so it should be good for swimming! We are in fact sailing over a relatively shallow ridge at the moment and soon the depths will drop to over 4 000 metres! After that it will remain deep until we start to approach Tristan da Cunha and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Although the water is clear we are still passing large quantities of garbage: plastic boxes, bags, bottles, jerry cans, polystyrene, light bulbs (!), polypropylene netting, etc! With all this junk floating about one wonders what the whales are sucking up as they filter krill through their baleen?
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