The light winds continue! Yesterday was a real test of patience. Very little wind with the boat only making 3 knots on terrible angles (probably more like 2 knots or less VMG). Sometimes we joke about being able to walk quicker but I could have almost certainly swam faster than we were moving!
Thankfully a bit of breeze came in around dinner time and the angle was perfect for the cruising chute, so we had a good 8 hours at 5-6 knots smack on bearing. This meant the boat was moving nice and smoothly and all was stable, allowing Cat her best sleep so far. Much needed! Cat has been superb generally this trip. She is a totally different sailor to our previous passages. She’s confident with the sails, steering and has stood all of her watches to the full, standing on for a little longer regularly to give me a bit of extra kip. This was highlighted last night... We had the chute up and doing very well. Just as we switched watch and I was about to go to bed we noticed some dark clouds and rain on the radar. The breeze came up a little so we made the call to drop the chute and put the headsail back out, which takes a bit of re-running sheets and is a bit of a faff in the dark. Shortly after, the rain passed with not much of a fuss and whilst lying in bed I felt the boat slow down, thinking to myself that we should have left the kite up and that we were losing valuable time, but then accepting that we made the sensible choice and that I didn’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on Cat. However, not being able to sleep at the thought of another sluggish night, I decided I’d lift my eye mask up and just check Cat was ok with everything. Just as I raised the cover from my eyes I found Cat standing at the end of the bed telling me that she thought we should put the kite back up but wasn’t sure to wake me. Suddenly I smiled and thought ‘could we be racing...? I think we might be’. So, I jumped out of bed and got dressed, hopped on deck and we re-ran the lines and relaunched the kite. Two sail changes in about half an hour. For a double handed crew on a floating caravan, that seemed quite a competitive move. I certainly slept better knowing the speed was back up!
The chute has stayed up the whole time as we continue heading around 260 degrees at 5ish knots. A little more pace and a little lower bearing would be nice but this is a lovely relief from the agonising rolling and rattling we’ve had since we left Gran Canaria.
We’re in good company with two other Moodys within 10 miles, plus another friend from the Las Palmas happy hours who has just sailed by. There are also plenty of dolphins, these ones speckled with backs resembling starling plumage and baby pink bellies. Cat highlighted that I incorrectly thought they were common dolphins so I had to apologise and explained that I didn’t do it on porpoise. Not sure of the species but I’d say there’s a decent chance they could be called ‘Speckled Dolphins’. If it turns out to be a yet undiscovered species, I shall name them ‘Martin’s Dolphin’.
Morale is high and we’re not too far away from the famous ‘butter melting’ point. Many boats around us are pointing for St Lucia now but I think we’ll keep trying to soak south with the chute up to be on the safe side and make sure we get into the proper trades for the long term picture.
As I write this our friends, who yesterday motored ahead of us for a few hours (my determination not to motor left us lurching and yawing in the vacuum behind), have just appeared on the AIS. I think we’re catching them back up, which is a nice reward.
We’re both feeling much happier now progress is being made and good sleeps being had. All that’s left to do is catch a bloody fish! It’d be a shame to tow little rubber squid across the entire ocean for nothing. That extra drag will cost us at least 20mins by the finish...
Martin
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