The day started with some clouds in the distance, an easy ocean and when I walked to the front for a relaxed sunrise view, they came again. Dolphins, surfing around our bow and more than earlier checking us out by tilting side to side
and looking you straight into the eyes. Half an hour past and eventually one remained after his buddies repeatedly left and swooped back to bump into him like; enough already let’s catch some breakfast.
Back in the back we saw we missed a surprising email from Jelle the night before with a slightly different tone. “I see you guys didn’t follow my waypoint” we all heard the “again” he didn’t write . “If you go too far south you’ll end
up in the big calm down there but continuing west like you do is fine. Please let me know if you still need any updates from me”. We know he wants us to go north and we went south west during the night
😬. We joked about replying: Yes Jelle we need you to tell us what route we’re not going to take. But he’d beat us to it with another update by the time we got to it. “The front up north has grown
and the calm down south seems to have moved further down: good choice guys!”
Our strategy with the stormfront is to clip the bottom of it - promising minimal swell, rain and no thunder - and dip down to the trade winds with the storm pressure in our back. Let’s hope that works better than Michiel closing the
heavy freezer lid: the sudden drop nearly chopped off his finger top..
Our sashimi lunch was exceptional and we have half of the big Bonito left. Which is good because fish don’t seem to bite the days before a full moon.
As the clouds in the distance drew near, it was clear we felt some natural fear. Looking like a jelly fish wall across the horizon, with rain tentacles hang down, we concluded these were going to be our first squalls. Small storms that
can pack quite a wind-, rain- and possibly thunder punch. Gorgeous from a distance but also a sign that the big front up north might be moving even quicker down. To us that is. We discussed altering our course straight south as heavily as we did burn a hot
needle through Michiels nail (for pressure relief). We decided to do neither.
I went to bed before some minor squalls passed over us and woke to 93% full moon. The bright light it casts over the ocean and reflection from it makes this night brighter than some rainy days back in NL.
As we checked the sail up front we again saw our aquatic mammal friends surfing with the bow. We’re either in luck, really made some crossing friends or their population is doing tremendously well!