Day 14 - we are saiing again

Ugcxatlantic
Thu 4 Dec 2008 20:22
16:12.20N 41:08.40W
We are sailing again...
And what a day.., not speaking of last night. Spectacular! We
stopped the engine at 2 am last night after a heavy thunderstorm that
opened the water sluices (=gates) from the sky - we took 60 mm rain in the next
few hours until morning and another 100-120 mm during this afternoon.
Around midnight the sky and our surroundings were 'flash-lit' by heavy
lightening and we took an executive decision to make a run for
it, away from the weather with a full throttle on the engine (now
we have also moved our electronic equipment such as laptop, satellite phone,
handheld GPS away from the yachts electrical boards as a matter of
safety precautions).
At 2 am it calmed down and we were left with a consistent southerly wind
that gave us moderate speed hence we could save on fuel.
Throughout the day we sailed into multiple squalls followed by rain
showers. A pretty consistent pattern we by now have learned to 'manage' ;
- we see the black clouds coming, - we reef sails partly - the
wind accelerate to 25-30 knots but the direction is not always predictable
- we ride it through and welcome the rainshowers coming along with it
- and after 1 hour all is back to pretty normal again with a dying wind. We
achieve boat speed from 3 - 6 knots over a
such change-in-pressure cycle.
Considering the dress code (clothing) we look more like being on a
fishing boat somewhere around Iceland or Greenland. Water temperature
though is 27.6 degree, so we are definitely not up north but more likely on a
correct course towards Caribbean.
Latest forecasts of today give us hope that we shall be through
this area in 1-2 days, and by Saturday (maybe?) fall into a north-east
trade wind pattern, though not strong winds, likely modest. X fingers. Not all
has gone according to plan so far so we as a crew
team start getting quite robust to unexpected changes. We really look
forward to Saturday. I love sailing....
Saturday would also be The Day when we are on a triple digit countdown,
passing the 999 nm remaining.
We had pancakes for lunch today. Helena prepared. Lovely - with blueberry
jam of course. Other than that not so much to report, life onboard is a
routine consisting of cockpit duty (2x 3hrs), eating,
sleeping and reading besides helping out jointly when we need to reef sails
and put the spinnaker boom for the genova up / down or tack.
The sea turtle showed up again today but this time we put it behind us...
Current log (actual): 1594
nm
Day 13 103 nm
Day 12 118 nm
Day 11 103 nm
Day 10 118 nm
Day 9 113 nm
Day 8 117 nm
Day 7 127 nm
Day 6 118 nm
Day 5 150 nm
Day 4 137 nm
Day 3 100 nm
Day 2 120 nm
Day 1 170 nm
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