Sea Rose - Day 9 - Spicy on the way to the Spice Islands

It’s getting a bit spicy. Last night the winds gusted high enough for us to do a cautionary douse of the asymmetrical. We poled out the genoa for a more stable wing and wing arrangement and it has served us well into this morning, Day 9. The surface of the water speaks ‘confused sea’ all over it, with residual northwest swell combined with new short period breaking waves from the east. In the midst are large round clumps of sargasso weed the size of a big car plus long drawn out lines of the weed like lane markers on an expressway. And express it is. We are doing all the speed we are comfortable showing without risking broken gear. Two boats crossed in front of us on a broad reach, presumably planning to gybe downwind but we are comfortable pointing right to Grenada. It’s not obvious if their extra effort is paying more dividends or not. But hats off to them for accepting the challenge. There are going to be lots of interesting stories on the pontoon at Port Louis. We can’t wait to hear them all.