Yesterday was another remarkable day, both for variety and accomplishment. It started out like the previous day- warm, sunny, flat sea, nice beam reach. I was planning to go to Salvador and anchor to wait out a small storm, that should pass by late Sunday. The rain and wind was forecast to arrive about 9am Saturday, and I figured if I sailed fast I could beat it by a few hours.
It seems the storm sent a few advance scout bands of rain ahead, because yesterday afternoon I had several greet me. They would cause the wind to veer and accelerate for a while, then the rain would pass and the wind would veer again and get very quiet. Then it would go back to normal for an hour before doing it again. This meant I spent much of my day reefing, shaking out reefs, trimming, easing, and constantly adjusting things. The evening brought more steady winds, but also increasing strength, and still a beam reach, which this beamy boat loves. I worked it all night, and started getting the first drops of storm rain and building seas as I turned in to the huge bay that is home to Salvador at 6am. For me, all that effort paid off, as I logged 207 miles yesterday, for an average speed of 8.6 knots over 24 hours. I am pretty happy with that, and I got anchored before the storm could catch me.
I expect to relax and sleep here at least through Sunday evening, maybe Monday morning, depending as always on the weather.
12.58S 38.31W 3451nm gone, 1845nm to go. 8am 9/3