Cape Verdes Outbound Day 6

Hi everyone,
At noon today we were at 13 40N 036 00W steering 270M, sailing under 2 reefs and no furls at 5 knots.  The wind was 14G18 from the NE.  Our noon to noon run by the log was again 116nm.

Running from the Sunrise

Yesterday afternoon we had a good sailing breeze and a mostly sunny sky.  The wind gradually eased overnight but stayed in the NE, allowing us to continue W directly towards our destination.  During the night a few small rain showers came over.  They delivered a little more wind and a few spots of rain followed by much lighter wind in their wake.

This morning turned into a boat-jobs session.  This included cleaning the solar panels (while tethered), using a boat hook to clear weed off the WindPilot's water vane, removing several flying fish from the deck and wiping the Saharan dust off the dodger 'clears'.  We also dunked one of our waterproof cameras overboard on a selfie stick to check for weed...

Weedy Prop, Clean Hull (so far)

On our last E-W N Atlantic crossing we ended up with the hull festooned with 1" gooseneck barnacles.  We're hoping that won't recur but suspect it will.  There's a lot of weed in the water and it appears to harbour the larvae which become gooseneck barnacles.

Reverting to our normal 3 hour watches has been a change for the better.  During the day we're prretty relaxed with them but at night we stick to them and rest well.

As usual we're eating well on Zen Again.  Lunches have featured sandwiches initially, then quiche and most recently tuna, the latter two with salad.  Dinners have featured chicken & pasta, tuna & veg, spicy tuna & potato, then mince beef, all with veg.  Dessert is canned fruit with 'libbies'.

Trust you're eating well!