29 May – Sargasso Sunday

Today marks exactly a month at sea since I left Cape Town and what a wonderful month it’s been. The contrasts between the cold sea water in the Cape autumn and where I currently am in the Northern hemisphere spring, but still in the hot, moody tropics is incredible and I have many observations about the transition. But today is also the day that I sailed into an area choked with Sargasso weed. There are patches of light yellow/brown weed with the consistency of plastic pot scourers and these patches are around the size of tennis courts! Around all the big patches are hundreds of little patches and there is just no sailing around them. Unfortunately, the impact is that I cannot use my wind vane or my hydro generator. They just become instantly clogged up and are rendered useless. So I have been steering all day. In the rain. And I probably will be all night too until I get out of this area and I have no idea how extensive it is? Character-building stuff.