Time shifting and wave surfing

Time shifting and wave surfing
We have traveled in time once more! We are now
on UTC-6 and still it gets lighter and lighter around 3 in the morning. We
shifted from 12:00 to 13:00 this afternoon and spend most of the daywatch
putting new bed sheets on, cleaning cabins and then sitting outside in the first
sun in days! And everybody was there, those not on watch read a book or just
‘lazied’ around in the sun. So singing during the night helps to bring out the
sun during the day! We had at least 4 or even 5 hours of blue sky and sun, until
grey clouds moved in again and gradually the wind increased.

We have noticed this before. There is a short period of skies clearing and then… wind
force 8 howling down on us right now. At watch handover we took the mainsail
down – not expecting to be able to set it any time soon. The wind is coming
straight from the west, which makes it difficult for us to stay on a straight
course to the Cape. We gibed last night just before dinner (hete bliksem, mince
meat with pears and carrots with butter and sugar) and will probably gibe again
somewhere this morning. Maybe even at watch handover.

The waves are building up again as well. We surfed down a wave just now and hit the 11 knots –
were we are doing 8 or 9 knots average. Just sitting here, inside behind the
computer I can look out through a porthole, I see grey skies and rain flying by
and every now and then we get pushed over to a degree that I can see just a
little bit of horizon and the rest is grey waves with the tops blowing off.
Maybe we should have sung again this morning, but we were just to busy staying
on course and surfing the waves.