Sunday 25^th May 2014

Sunrise about 05:30 a.m.

09:00

The weather has been changing. As predicted by the downloaded GRIB files the wind has been dropping and this morning we have around 8-9 knots. The moon has been waning steadily until last night we got only a sliver and with few stars. No ships, no gannets, but as usual flying fish have been swooping onto the decks to be found desiccated in the scuppers; we average about 6 a night. After the trough of bad weather on Friday conditions remained rough with waves over the decks and occasionally into the cockpit. Saturday was jumbled, the morning started brisk then conditions eased later in the day. We had been worried that the rough sea swell would continue as the wind dropped because that combination can be very uncomfortable and frustrating. Neptune has been rather kinder and as the winds continued to weaken the swell continued to lessen. Progress has obviously been slower but having a calm, quiet night was too appealing so we resisted the engine and slept in peace. All this means that we missed the target for the day’s run by quite a big margin but this easing won’t last more than 24 hours according to the GRIBS downloaded last night so we will be treating this as a bit of a rest day.

The motor was turned on at 08:00 and we were able to open some windows without fear of a deluge from the long, low swell outside. Chris turned into his bunk after his 04:00 to 08:00 night watch with the motion of the boat still fairly gentle and probably quite soporific.

We are bowling along at 6.5 knots in a calm sea, it feels wonderful.

10:45

Life on board just got better, the engine has been turned off and the best thing is that the seas are still very friendly, just perfect. We are escaping from full cloud cover into high cirrus, a mackerel sky with the occasional powder puff, the sun is bright and charging the solar panels. The wind has shifted round from ESE to south and increased to 12 knots so we are sailing on a steady reach at 6+ knots under a full genoa and mainsail, the first time it has been out of the lazy bag this trip. This is such a treat and something of a surprise as we were expecting to be wallowing about in 4 knots of wind; still most of the day has yet to come.

13:00

Wind continues to increase, now getting 13 – 14+ knots giving 6.5 - 7 knots over the ground. A long deep swell is coming up from the Southern Ocean, the deep waves are well-spaced out so the boat isn’t jerked about as it was in the wind waves we’ve had over the last days.

18.00

We now have 23 knots of wind still from the south or even a little west of south…not where it is supposed to be! It has also got squally with the odd light shower and we are both feeling chilly. We are down to just a heavily reefed genoa but the boat is continuing at about 6 knots in an increasingly lumpy sea. Hopefully the squally stuff will not last long and the wind will return to its more usual SE.

18:30

Chris has just put long trousers on, this seems very peculiar indeed!