Amokura - Log Day 4 - Seaweed & Squalls

Unsurprisingly we are spending lots of time looking at the sea on this trip. That's when we're not napping, anticipating the next meal, or doing jobs around the boat, including pumping out the stern locker, still experiencing water ingress, and needing attention every few hours.
We've become very attuned to subtle changes, the direction of the swell, the wave height, the sound it makes at night as it approaches us, we can often tell if a splash is going to come on board! One of the things I love about sailing is being close to nature and its rhythms, we become so disconnected during our normal lives at home and work. So we soon noticed the increase in seaweed in the water, clumps and clumps of the brown fronds streaming past us, I wonder if they will end up on a Cape Verdean beach in the future. A side effect of this was to hamper our dawn fishing efforts. After 3 false alarms, when we thought we may have supper in the bag, and the hook getting caught in the large waves as we were reeling in added to the impression of a large something fighting on the line, we gave it up as a bad job and a Chinese themed supper of Crispy seaweed didn't seem to excite the crew.  Sweet potato and coconut daal on the menu tonight then.
On the radio, another yacht was having more weed problems as it was catching in their steering gear.

During our progress West, we've noticed the sun setting later, so moved the night watches on by 1 hr starred at 2000 GMT. The sun now rises at 0830. My watch from 0200-0500 was starlit, until the stars were blocked out by a large cloud marching up from behind. In went the washboards as the rain approached, but luckily not too much wind in this one. We dodged a couple of other small squalls but nothing too serious so far, although there are reports from yachts a few miles behind of 35 - 40 kts of wind so we are being very vigilant and prepared for a swift reduction in sail. This wind is forecast to remain fairly consistent over the next few days and get lighter by the weekend, so we are crashing the miles in where we can, but being safe. We have covered 706 nm over 1/3 of the distance so far, which is fantastic!

Miles run in last 24 hrs 184 nm
Average speed 7.66 kts
Distance to destination 1461 nm

Signing off...

Liz Brigstocke