05’55.8S 031’39.8W course 195′ speed 5,7
Slowly but surely the wind is coming around and backing to a more Easterly then South Easterly direction and so we have been able to come to a course that is almost directly on our course line. Heading South! We are making miles and miles every day and that is what these tradewind areas are for. The weather has gone more and more stable, with less showers and high cumulus, more the lower altitude cumulus of the trade winds. We have also lost the stronger Equatorial current running West, which makes holding our course a lot easier.
As I went off watch at 18:00 last night, the winds were still a force 5, but the wind and with it the sea state, have calmed down a lot. If the winds stay like they are now, around a force 4, we will unreef with the next watch handover. Getting a little more drive behind our sails.
It was Sams birthday today, although he is not on board, we thought it would be an amazing opportunity to make ourselves some chocolate cake with dolce de leche in between. And so we started naming all the people around us that will have their birthday somewhere during this voyages, and we came down to an average of 1 cake every 3 days. Which is a good average! We have no birthdays on board this voyage, so lets get creative.
The temperature of the water has come down even more, we are already at 27,0 degrees and feel it mostly during the nights. Still in shorts, but with sweater on Soete and I swear this is the best temperature and best outfit. Just cold enough to cool down and just warm enough to still be on flipflops and in shorts. Downstairs is also cooling down, although we have the hatches closed due to some enthusiastic waves and thus spray, we have our doors open. The first fans have been turned off for short periods, so we are all feeling the change.
We have slowed down to 5 knots now, which makes me think of unreefing now… but with just Mark, Soete and me on watch, that may be a little enthusiastic.. although we have done it before…! Might be a good workout to break up the night watch!
All is well on board,
Jet
PS its about an hour later now.. and we unreefed 🙂
