63 and Sunny

Had a bit of a slow day today with no more than 4 knots of wind for most of the day. But at least it was warm and sunny! It got all the way up to 63 degrees today!! I had been routed to go west of the Falkland Islands and just get north fast. But with the wind angle I ended up with and my position I wasn't able to. I could have waited for the wind to shift but that wasn't going to be for awhile and then, not for long. So I decided it would be better to head back and go south of them. It's a longer way to get around them but at least I wouldn't be stuck too close to shore. Wild Eyes does not go to weather and being too close to shore can be very dangerous.

So here I am now on my way. The winds have been unusually light but have now picked up to a nice 15 knots with Wild Eyes making around 7.5 knots headed almost directly east. I am waiting for the wind to shift to the NW so I can head more north.

I've been sailing along with a fleet of fishing boats since this morning. It was a little scary at first having fifteen big boats just a few miles away. They had all been going along in a pretty strait line following each other but now they've stopped and I just passed them. It was pretty cool to be able to actually see other boats and know there were other people so close. I felt a little like sailing over and saying 'Hi', but decided since they were fishing it wouldn't be the best idea.

There have been some rumors going around saying that I received assistance from my dad when we were trying to meet up around Cape Horn. I was a little sad to hear people saying stuff like that when I have written on my blog about how we were never able to meet up. My goal is to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world but if I did need assistance I would be the first to tell you. It is not planned but if I end up stopping or if I need to get help, it's not the end of the world to me and I don't look at it as a failure. Many boats on round the world voyages need to stop for mechanical issues. Besides I'm out here for an adventure, and it wouldn't be an adventure if everything went according to plan. I would hope that my word is enough, but if it's not, my dad was on a boat with three other people who will all tell you what happened.

On a happier note, I got a lot done this morning. It was a little bit of a pain having no wind, but I was able to do a lot of work and get things all cleaned up down below as well as get a good hour of much needed sleep. Its been a hard couple of days out here. I haven't slept much at all being so close to shore and with so many fishing boats every where. My AIS is great and I love it most of the time, but lately it's been going off constantly. Last night I had 20 boats on the screen at once -it was a little crazy.

So, it was good to get a quiet morning and now things have picked up and I should be able to make some good progress tonight.

I know there are also questions on the autopilot repairs. I will send out an update on that soon. As of now though, I am not planning on stopping at Stanley on the Falkland Islands.

Abby