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Purrr-fect - Leg 2 - Day 3: changing sails



Our third day seemed like a day to try every possible sail combination to keep the boat moving the best. The early morning wind gradually lightened so we decided to fly the spinnaker for more speed.

The spinnaker involves quite a bit of work to set up so all 3 of us were busy working together to get the spinnaker flying and also furling in the jib with whisker pole. We never can relax when the spinnaker is flying since it seems to collapse and snap back frequently with every little wind change. The large swells caused the spinnaker to collapse as well. But it added over a knot of speed. However, the wind suddenly started to increase as we observed a squall line headed our way, so we prudently doused the spinnaker in advance of the squall. We reset up the jib wing on wing with the whisker pole when the squall was passed and enjoyed the extra wind behind the squall line.

Later in the afternoon, the winds were lighter again but there appeared to be lots of potential squalls on the horizon. So rather than set up the spinnaker, we thought of trying to fly double headsails along with the main. Sure enough, as soon this arrangement was working well, here came another squall and we had to pull down the second headsail.

Once again, after the squall, we reset the double headsails to move as best as possible. We are hoping this set up will work throughout the night because making all of these sail changes in the dark is twice as difficult. All in a day of sailing!

On the fruit and veg inventory , we ate our second to last mango. Yum! Still have another mango and a large honeydew melon for the next few days. Apples and oranges and tomatoes all doing well. We traded some veggies with Anne on Time Bandit before we left Cape Verdes. Half a green cabbage for a purple one. 3 cucumbers for one zucchini.
P.S. The double headsails and full main worked through the night so we made good speed over 6 knots despite light winds.

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