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Blake - is this the trades?



I think until now if these were the NE trade winds then they have been very angry, maybe at being held back, but today they have taken on their usual persona. The waves had been crazy crossed seas and they are really only just starting to settle into more of a rhythm and come generally from one direction. It’s certainly not so much the wind speed as the sea state that makes life aboard difficult.

We did have a pleasant nightwatch last night, stars and sailing, which really made us realize how crappy the night before had been! That involved Repeated squalls giving wind shifts and rain, lucky if you caught the edge of one but not so lucky if you were right in the middle. The worst of them was dropping cold rain on us and 30 knots apparent wind from behind and we were doing 7 knots+ boat speed with a scrap of headsail up! We have in fact gone bare poles (no sails) a few times to get some rest and eat dinner or just take a break, every sail trim, course change etc adds to the tiredness and lack of sleep. In fact I have found the one place I can sleep really well is under the saloon table wedged in there on top of our sail! Perfect, middle of the boat and low down so doesn’t move so much!

Not going to lie it’s tough going just the two of us on watch, we do 3 on and 3 off in the nights and in the day is a bit more chill and see who’s tired, who’s happy to keep watch etc. fortunately there is a lot less shipping traffic than we had on the way to the start of the ARC (ie Gibraltar) but we were really surprised to have to dodge the same fishing boat (not on AIS) twice! They had put out buoys or markers on their lines I guess then motored ahead to set some more in our path! Tones of deck lights so easy to spot them, but no AIS which takes away all the is he, isn’t he questions.

Girls are excited to start their advent calendar and have started to decorate the boat for Christmas❤️

Aloha Blake




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