Melting Butter

During the age of nautical exploration, a saying was adopted that stated, “Sail South until the butter melts, then hang a right”. The basis of that advice was for ships leaving Europe headed to the new lands of the Carribean and North America. To cross the expansive Atlantic Ocean, sailors would need to ride the “trade winds” pattern that is predictable and dependable. These trade winds consistently blow from East to West in the lower latitudes (tropical region). Passages that attempted to sail directly West from Europe were plagued by patterns that would strand ships in the middle of the Atlantic with no winds for weeks. Therefore, the approach of sailing South until you reach the warmer tropical airs before heading West was adopted as a standard passage route. That age old nautical advice still holds true today …

Queen’s Dream left the chilly water of France 8 days ago and has now traveled the open seas for over 1,000 miles South. The passage plan is to indeed continue South until we reach warmer, tropical temperatures before heading West across the Atlantic. Our waypoint destination is the small Portuguese island of Maderia. The island is located roughly 400 miles West of Morocco. There, we will set foot on land again for a few days and re-provision our supplies for the 4-week ocean journey West. This island was well known by sailors traveling to the New World and became a regular stop for many historical ships heading west. Queen’s Dream will follow that same historical route. We anticipate making landfall by mid-day tomorrow. Anyone for melted butter?