Day 5, Red sky at morning....

49 22.819 S, 062 24.723 W

The saying goes, "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning, red sky at night, sailors delight". Sailors are a superstitious bunch and we are as well. Now some will say that the red sky pertains to the red light district, where sailors would spend their money and their shore time. If they were still there in the morning, they may have missed their ship leaving. Other sailors believe it is pertaining to the weather.

This morning we saw a bright red sunrise that lit up the sky. Uh Oh, what now? As it turns out, the winds started from the north and then clocked around to the west and then to the southwest, all the while the winds built to 32 or so knots and the seas built from 1 meter swells and 1 foot wave chop on top, to 3 meter swells with 4-6 feet of wave chop! Yes, Mr. Toad's wild ride. The good thing is it pushed us along in the direction we wanted to go, but it was a little uncomfortable at the same time. The birds enjoyed it, swooping and diving around Windarra. I tried but unsuccessfully to get a picture since they were so close, but a few feet from us. The picture in my mind will have to suffice.

Some have asked where we are going. We are headed for Mar del Plata, Argentina, which is on the coast and south of Buenos Aires. We had two choices, either to follow a coastal route, similar to what we did in Peru and on the Chilean coast or to head directly there from the Estrecho de Le Maire, also known as the rhumb line. Everyone knows that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, well for sailors, we refer to it as the rhumb line. If you were to look in detail of our course so far, it is more like a rum line, with a few strange turns as the winds clocked around or we had to tack to take advantage of a wind shift.

The winds have eased a bit and are in the 20 - 24 knot range and the seas are back to 2 meters. Hopefully tomorrow it will ease some more.

We continue north bound...

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