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Sweet Dream - Saturday January 18, 2020



The dawn came late and brought more squalls. This is the third morning in a row for squalls. The waves are really getting spectacular after a few days of wind never dropping below twenty knots. They are quite widely spaced swells, so not too uncomfortable except the occasional cross swell from the beam that tries to leap up into the cockpit and sets us rocking and rolling. Oh yes, I remember...no matter where you are going in the Atlantic, you rock and roll. It’s still way better than the Indian Ocean. Lars made contact with the fleet at both nets today. Very impressive, as we are over 400 miles apart! The first wave that left Cape Town on Jan 8 is two days ahead of us, and the bulk of the Walvis bay group is 400 miles behind. We could hear bits of the front runners, and actually talk with the ones behind. At noon, we had 610 miles to go...hopefully make landfall at St Helena in Wednesday if our pace holds. At 17:00 today the wind took a radical shift from straight south to south east and really laid down a lot. This has created a very uncomfortable confused sea, translating into a very noisy ride with all kinds of new clatter, clinks, and rattles. I spent most of my first sleeping time off watch chasing down all the new noises and stuffing small towels and sponges between things. Usually by the end of the first night at sea we have the noises quieted, but this trip has been fairly smooth until tonight, so it’s like we are just starting out. Now it’s my first on watch of the night and I’m chasing a path that doesn’t produce incessant rolling...quite a feat of navigation! It is never boring on the Sweet Dream!

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