Sunshine and squalls all day today. Heavy, tropical rain in the squalls – enough for a fresh-water shampoo and rinse, but more importantly some of the squalls bring wind shifts and gusts – the crew need to be snappy at taking in the light-air sails, and bracing around while the helmsman bears away to keep the wind aft of the square sails to make sure we don’t break anything in the rig. Then, squall passed we set everything and brace back again to get back on course. It means lots of running around and getting soaked for the watch on deck, but it makes the watch fly by, and great training in sail handling and weather awareness. And it’s plenty warm here in the tropics so nobody much minds a soaking.
SHIPS WORK: A squally Saturday, so no big projects today – sailmakers continue grommeting and roping, riggers are patch serving on a footrope and the tack for the main topmast staysail, the royal yard got a coating of wood preservative before the varnishing starts, and the bosun snuck in some small spot painting between rain showers.
BOUND FROM: James Bay, St Helena, South Atlantic Ocean
TOWARDS: Grenada, Windward Islands, Caribbean Sea
TIME ZONE: GMT -1
NOON POSITION: 03°00.0’S /024°16.4’W
DAYS RUN: 123 nm
PASSAGE DISTANCE RUN: 1,390 nm
DISTANCE REMAINING: 2,401 nm
COURSE AND SPEED: North North West, Course made good 305° true, 4 knots
WIND: Wind Force 3, East South East
WEATHER: Fair, 5/8 cloud cover, barometer 1016 millibars and steady, visibility good
SWELL HEIGHT & DIRECTION: South East by South 1 m
SAILS SET: All square sails set, braced square. All headsails except the flying jib and all staysails set.
Sam B from Bermuda mends a tear in the fore lower topsail