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