Cape Town Outbound Day 7

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 23 38S 007 00E and saillng at 6 knots on a course of 020M. The wind is SSE at 18-22 knots with a 2m sea and a 3m SW swell.  We are sailing under single-reefed main and triple-furled yankee.  Partly couldy sky.  Our day's run was 141nm and we have 851nm to go.

Dawn this morning

Yesterday afternoon the swell gradually increased.  It's quite deceptive when long swell appears - it's only when one looks carefully that it "materialises".  In the mean time one wonders why the sets of bigger seas are getting nastier and more frequent.  Eventually you realise its the swell under the seas which is upsetting things.

Late in the afternoon a large bank of cloud approached and the wind increased.  We decided to put in a reef and that was a good call.  The winds only got up to perhaps 28 knots but the sea state was messy.  We gybed to the west for several hours before a wind change to the SE had us gybing back.  Since then we've been heading N.

This morning the winds have moderated a little and the seas have too.  It's still a bit of a washing machine, not unlike the Southern Indian Ocean!  We expect conditions to improve tomorrow.  In the mean time we're making good progress.  Twould be nice if the wind went around to the S so we could gybe and head straight for St Helena.  Looks like we'll be gybing too and fro all the way there.

Broad Reaching

We've been collecting an increasing number of increasinly large flying fish on the deck.  Practically all hit the boat at night and some are stranded aboard.  One big one hit the mast which generated a substantial "clang".  In the morning we found a fish eye at the base of the mast.  Later we found the rest of the poor chap on the deck at the bow.  He wouldn't have felt a thing!  We also find a few squid aboard.  They're messy to get rid of.  All this and the water temperature of 25C shows we're approaching the tropics!

We crossed 7 30E early this morning and are in the process of changing our clocks to UTC.  No more converting UTC radio schedule times to/from other time zones for a while!  This afternoon we will reach the half way mark.  We plan a small rum punch to celebrate.  More progress => more rum punching! :)