13°15.6S 094°04.0W | Course 313° | Speed 7.3kn
Last night I mentioned we might take a reef during the day… Well, it came a little earlier than planned.
At 04:00 watch handover, the wind had already started to play its usual tricks — slowly picking up, then easing again — but the overall trend was clear: it was building. Steering was getting heavier during the showers, with the helmsmen working hard to keep the Tecla steady through the pressure and waves.
When our change over team came on deck, I said, “We may need to reef.” The wind then dipped briefly — and surged again within 15 minutes. And so I followed my own golden rule:
Thinking of reefing is reefing.
Don’t wait. Don’t second-guess. Don’t hope for more hands in two hours. Just reef.
So we did.
It was our first reef with just Joana, Tracey, Bob, Michael, and myself on deck. It was pitch dark, waves rolling us and wind increasing. So the urgency increasing. We walked through the plan together and got to it. With Tracey at helm the rest of us moved over the deck to ease, pull, tie and set again. Forty minutes later, the reef was in, the deck was tidy, and we were sailing beautifully again. Good timing, too — the next dark squall sent us surging along at 9.2 knots!
By late morning, more squalls rolled in. Around the 12:00 handover, a particularly large one loomed behind us. We couldn’t see beneath it, but the building whitecaps ahead told us enough. Without waiting, we reefed the mizzen too.
The rest of the day we sailed under reefed canvas, still clocking speeds of 9.5 knots, occasionally dipping to 7 in the lulls.
Now, we’re in that awkward zone: the wind is softening, but we’re still seeing strong bursts in the squalls — hitting 8.8 knots as they pass. So the question is: when do we shake the reef? For now, we wait.
Between the rainclouds and rainbows, the sun came out in full glory. Tracey and Joana claimed the perfect reading nook — curled up on an old sail mid-deck, shielded from the breeze and warmed by the sun. You wouldn’t spot them straight away… unless, of course, you followed the trail of flying fish — one of which crash-landed right there this morning.
All is well on board, Jet
(picture of the day by Tilmann and Lisa – a team effort and a rainbow!)
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