This leg of our journey is 1/3 of the way accomplished from Cape Town to St. Helena. It has been some of the most enjoyable sailing in the rally. Blue skies, sunshine, fairly consistent wind from a very usable quarter, very little boat traffic, and a quite pleasant wave pattern. Each afternoon the wind gets up around 30 knots, we reef down and travel comfortably through the night, then shake out some of the reef in the morning light. We currently are flying the wing on wing rig with the Genoa poled out to port and the main prevented out to starboard with the staysail sheeted tight in the middle. The pole has given us a bit of trouble in that it has detached itself at the mast track again this morning . Very unnerving! Captain did a temporary fix by using a short length of dynema to tie the pole to the track directly, so that if it comes off the attachment cup, it doesn’t come loose. It has held in 32 knots of wind, fingers crossed we make it to St Helena and onto Brazil without further mishap! I suggested we take it down all together, lash it to the rail, and just sail a few extra miles sailing deeper angles with the sails on the same side, and gybe now and then, rather than trying to go closer to downwind with the pole up wing on wing, but Lars didn’t like that idea. Twice the wind has shifted west enough that we were able to take the pole down and sail on a 120 degree port tack, but unfortunately, each time, after half a day or so, the wind shifted back to the south, behind us, and to continue to sail our rhumb line requires the pole out. Never a dull moment on the Sweet Dream!
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