Canary Islands to Accra, Ghana.
1850 miles (3000 km), 10h32
Hi everybody,
A lot has happened since the last personal update from me (John),
mostly fatigue right now. I write this as we pass by Bamako shortly
after a sunrise spoiled by cloud and building weather.
I last
wrote an update on the eve of our initial Atlantic leg from St. John's to
Santa Maria. As it turned out, the weather did cooperate and the
developing system had layers of cloud and a few isolated storms, which
were not significant. The weather radar was great to have in that
situation as we could weave our way through the weather. This only
lasted about an hour and a half, otherwise we had great
weather. The endless miles of ocean was a first for me and Neil was kept
busy with the HF radio, which only seemed to work on the higher
frequencies, but we managed to have enough contact to make air traffic
control happy.
Winds have
worked in our favor mostly and our fuel endurance has been better than
expected and after numerous calculations as well as using the very fancy
computers and TV screens on board, the numbers all check out and we
have about 12.5 hrs total endurance. One thing I have learned is that winds
play a huge role in long range flying, making it essential to get
accurate wind forecasts.
Santa Maria is a very quaint and
remote island and one gets the feeling that the people have a real
advantage over the huge populations of the world encumbered by the rat
race. A short flight into Las Palmas was enjoyable after good rest,
where we refueled, hired beds and a meal at a hotel for a few hours
before setting sail again around midnight. I did not manage to get any
sleep, but I did manage to rest. Sleep deprivation and 13000 feet for
hours on end are the reasons I am fatigued right now, but we have only 3 hrs
left to run to Accra, where I hope to sleep after sending this email of
course!
We have picked up some tail winds and the winds are exactly as forecast.
I am looking forward to getting home and 3 days of sleep!
Blessings,
John
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