Noon at the close of day five of our passage finds Madrone motoring in dead calm conditions. The wind has dropped to zero as the barometer rises, and the sea surface is a slick, rippled only by the leftover long period northwest swell.
The flat seas and bright sunshine make for great visibility, which is fortunate because we happen to be motoring through a maze of floating lumber. We guess that a load of milled wood was washed off a passing freighter somehow, as we pick our way through what look to be about 8’ lengths of 2x6s. Each board only has a few barnacles attached, so they must have been washed overboard fairly recently.
We are about 80nm off of Cape Finisterre, and the calm conditions are forecast to give way to NE wind at 20-30kts. We’ve set a course far to the north of our intended destination with the idea that we can have a more comfortable wind angle in the stronger wind. We’ll find out if our strategy is a good one…
All’s well onboard.
Day Five
158nm
43 04.5N 11 16.4W
Wind calm Seas 2-4’ NW swell
