Monday 5 Aug

S/Y Visions of Johanna
North Atlantic Ocean
Tuesday, August 6th, 2019
0815 UTC
51 37.2N/49 48.5W
SOG 8.3, COG 221
Wind 16-20 knots, TWD 110, seas 3-6'
Bar 1009. Cloudy, lite fog, very damp with slight precipitation

Wind eased somewhat throughout the morning and early afternoon yesterday and later veered to the ESE and increased as predicted. We were flying full mainsail and reacher early on, turned to the engine for 2 hours at 1030 to keep speed, but sailed the rest of the daytime hours. We went to jib and quickly added the staysail when engine went off at 12:30 and by 5 PM there were no thoughts of engine time, wind was 15 kn and had been slowly increasing all afternoon. We saw 16-20 knots most of the night but had one hour at 0100 of 22-24 kn, gusting to 27 kn. We rode that out watchfully, brought staysail in, and wind has remained in the 16-20 knot range since.

We are carrying this still with wind just abaft the beam, sailing to a 72 degree AWA which should bring us to my interim WP of 50 30N/50 30W. Aside from the symmetry, this WP is south and east of any known icebergs in the Labrador Sea and from there we will make directly for St. Johns. Reports from Ted Laurentius, the OCC Port Officer in St. Johns, is that local knowledge says there are no icebergs in the south Labrador Sea.

We have made great miles overnight and will stack them onto our 204 nm. day one, and 197 nm. day two. We will be sailing into a trough however as we approach 50N and will likely slow down and resort to engine time. Which has been minimal so far this trip.

Lunch yesterday was a Chicken Stew with a beet/radish/red pepper/onion/apple salad. Dinner was smoked haddock and cod soup, cole slaw and open faced toasties with salami, turkey and melted cheese. Our desert and teas capped off a nice evening.

Situation fine with a side of rockin' and rollin' this morning, and

All well aboard, sending,

Best wishes from Bill and the crew of Visions of Johanna
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