Quick Update. Saturday 19 April 2014.

Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Sat 19 Apr 2014 19:45
05:42.839S 096:39.139W

We have had a more lively 48 hours with better winds of 10 - 20 knots and
sailing speeds of up to 7 knots, but mostly around 5.5 - 6. We travelled
130 and 132 miles over the last couple of days compared to 82 and 114 on the
first couple of days. We have up to 2 knots of current running head on to
us which is a bit annoying because our speed over ground would be even
quicker without it pushing back at us.

The current is also running in the opposite direction to the waves and swell
which means that the gap between waves is shorter and the sides are steeper
so we get thrown around a bit more. It will change of course!

In addition we have had much more cloud and some irritating squalls which
have dumped torrential rain onto us for 15 minutes or so here and there.
Quite often we can avoid them by changing direction a little and slowing
down but sometimes we cannot and so we get a bit wet. At least these
squalls have no malice in them as Peter from Jack Tar said on the radio this
morning. They are rain only as opposed to rain plus thunder plus very high
winds. The winds do pick up a bit though so we reduce the sail area which
one person can do very quickly. At night we always have the main sail
reduced to the second reef so that we don't need to start reducing that in a
hurry and we have a cunning set up for the Genoa (headsail, jib) which means
that we can take it in and let it out easily. Last night Carol copped it
big time and got drenched. The usual drill with that scenario is that the
person who was asleep gets up but stays dry and on hand while the squall
passes. They then take over while the soaking wet body gets changed then
goes back on deck. The upside is that the boat and sails get a wash in
fresh water which removes the salt build up and some grime.

We haven't seen any other boats or ships but know that Jack Tar is over the
horizon in front and Sundancer II is over the horizon behind us.

All well on board.