Windy South Atlantic Weather

46’37.3S 054’56.5W course 175′ speed 6,1kn

After so many days of sunny beautiful weather, of course we knew it would end some day. And that day was today! Last night winds picked up, continuing this morning and even until now. The weather forecast we had was mostly right, except for the strong gusting winds, which lighter. But also for the wind we have right now. Its half past one at night right now and we are experiencing strong westerly winds, 27 to 32 knots at least. Our small storm jib, forestaysail and reefed mizzen are still the only sails we have up, and as we are trying to keep the Tecla on a beam reach or even better on a close reach, we hit the 7 or 7,5 knots frequently. The waves are annoying though. They are on the beam as well, so we roll a lot, slowing us right down and pushing us of course every now and then..

And the waves bring another problem, we have been struck by seasickness once again. Three or four of the group are down with motion sickness and need sleep more then anything.

The wind is supposed to veer a bit more to the 290 degrees or even 300 degrees. I hope this happens soon, it may confuse the waves a little and make them come on a more aft quarterly direction.

The night is completely clear. We have a bright moon shining us by and we have a starry night to stare at.

During the day we have seen lots of bird life, we saw a light mantled Sooty Albatross, a Black browed Albatross, a Wandering Albatross, a Great Skua, some Sheerwater, prions and Wilsons Petrels. We had a visit from some Peal’s dolphins, who were riding the waves. Daniel spotted them as they rode a waves that was just on our aft and their fins were almost at eye hight. The waves have built up to 3,5 meters, maybe 4, but then decreased again as well, as the wind direction keeps changing.

On deck we are currently clipped in. Sitting on the aft we all have our harnassen on and are hooked into a safetyline. Soete thought it looked like we are all in the Climbing forest, waiting our turn to go up on into the trees.

Life on board has become somewhat of a challenge with these waves. We have our lee boards up, walking is a challenge on its own, making coffee is even worse. Opening the fridge door is an adventure and drinking water at dinner is out of the question as our glasses tumble over when ever we dont look.
I am getting our new weather report in now. Lets see what it has in store for us.

All is rolly but well on board,
Jet

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