Sunday 2nd Dec. 1000 - Atlantic Crossing 22 27.49N 22 07.61W
Barada
Paul Downie
Tue 4 Dec 2007 09:45
Half-way down we encountered increasing Easterly high winds and a lively-confused sea state - we were actually reducing sail to nearly nothing in order to slow Barada down as we were now racing downwind with the sea/waves/wind coming from behind. The odd thing was the sky was blue, the sun was shining, the sunsets and rises weren't bad and there were no adverse weather reports, all very puzzling at the time.
24 Hours later I realised that we had run into the Easterly Tradewinds belt - the E winds were constant and blowing us West, and I said to Rosie "we are in the tradewinds, so there is no point in struggling down to the Cape Verde Islands when we have these perfect winds blowing us across the Atlantic - are you game for crossing?" But really neither of us had a choice, the wind dictated where we were going - and that was west to the Caribbean.
So folks, one year on it looks like we may be in the sunny Caribbean by Christmas or the New Year.