Over the course of today conditions have gradually calmed down.
The waves and swell have become more aligned, and dropped to around 2m, with patches of less than that getting more and more extensive. Most importantly, the seas have swung to be coming from more or less directly behind. This has greatly improved boat motion. Over the course of the day the, sometimes violent, lurches, this way or that, have ceased. We are back to the up and down motion, but we do still sometimes roll from side to side too as she snakes her way down the back of waves, enjoying herself surfing.
We have continued to be on the look out for squalls, with or without rain. But none came over us during the day. The cloud formations are interesting as they do consolidate into what might be a worrying bank, and then break up. They thus change quite a lot over time.
The wind has gradually fallen too over the day. But it has made a bit of a meal of that as it has continued to gust up, and then drop, causing us to reef and then unreef regularly. But the general trend has been definitely downwards. In the morning we were seeing wind of around 18 going up to 22 knots. By mid afternoon it was more like 15 to 18. By tea time it was 13 to 15 and we were going along nicely under two full headsails.
For the first time in this passage we enjoyed drinks and nibbles in the cockpit before supper. Soft drinks as we are running a dry ship. That was lovely serene sailing into the setting sun, the boat handling herself in a beautiful calm and soothing manner. Life doesn’t get much better than this. Before midnight there was a sliver of new crescent moon, on its back. It was so bright in the black sky. It did not stay for long though, but the star show remained pretty spectacular all night.
Put some reefs in for safety’s sake for overnight. The wind did go back up a bit. But we also caught the corner of a squall. This time the temperature noticeably dropped first and that was the indicator. (We have been sailing over night in shorts and tee shirts for some days now). I reefed heavily, and there was rain, but it was nowhere near as dramatic as the previous ones. The problem in the dark is deciding when it has gone. This time the indicator was that the temperature shot up again. Interesting.
Progress continues to be good, and without any breakages. It’s looking like we may arrive in Grenada in about three days time. The forecast is quite stable, of moderate trade winds as we have now. If anything, winds may drop as we approach the islands.