At noon today we are at 21 19N 25 28W sailing at 4.5 knots on a broad reach under single-reefed main and single-furled yankee. The wind is E 9G12. The seas are slight with a long 1m swell. The air temperature is 20C, water 24C and we are surrounded by rainclouds. Our noon to noon daily run was a paltry 98nm. We have 2178nm to go. Slow going again today. Wet too.
Early Morning - Sunshine and Rain
Yesterday afternoon the wind held obstinately in the NNE, keeping us going WSW longer than expected. Mid afternoon a single sea bird visited us - the first I'd seen for days. Then a large pod of small dolphins arrived and stayed with us for several hours. They'd occasionally leap vertically from the water, belly-flopping back in. Always fun to have a playful escort.
In the late afternoon we knew the wind change was coming. A line of rain clouds was approaching. Unusually we could see three partial rainbows, each one under a rain cloud. Very spectacular. Rain showers started early evening and by 2100UTC the wind change to ENE was in. We gybed to the SSW.
We had showers all through the night, with mostly light winds. At times we barely had steerage way. We kept the first reef in the main just in case, sailing mostly on the yankee. Some of the showers were fairly heavy and the deck is now cleaned of salt!
The 1900UTC sked included Lady of Lorien and Ruffian. Tuuletar was out of range, partly due to their being in daytime. We're moving the sked to 2100UTC from this evening. We'll also be moving ship's time to UTC-2 to realign sunrise with breakfast. And we're going to 4 hour watches from lunchtime today.
It looks like we'll remain in light winds until Saturday when we'll reach our waypoint WNW of the Cape Verdes at 18N 28W. By the time we get there the trades are predicted to have filled in nicely and if so we'll be on our way westward towards Antigua!
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