Another perfect weather day yesterday. More clear and sunny, flat seas and now broad-reaching wind. And not only that, but I keep going faster than I expect. Oh yeah, the current is going with me!
It felt like Tahiti. Hot weather, more so as I was going downwind, so the apparent wind was almost nothing, and super clear turquoise water. I didn’t realize just how clear until I saw a whale swim beneath me about 30 feet down, and I could see him perfectly clearly. Then I passed over the Abrolhos reefs, and the colors changed with the depths, from deep blues to agua greens and all the shades in between. And whales were everywhere., cruising along the surface, flapping their tales, and just basically goofing off, I think.
In the evening, the wind rotated a bit more behind me, making it a run, which is not quite as good as a broad reach. Running just isn’t as balanced, without the side pressure from the wind, and the autopilot has a harder time maintaining course, and doesn’t react as well to the waves pushing the stern around. The wind built in the late evening, eventually to 20 to 25 knots from behind. I was certainly enjoying the speed (surfing over 12 knots on the bigger waves, and averaged 8.5 knots over a 6 hour period, all with dry decks), but every 20 minutes or so the boat would get pushed around too far for auto to recover, and I would have to intervene. This kept me pretty glued to the helm area, but the wind only lasted until about 3am, then started backing off. This morning, it is way down to less than 10 knots as I am back along the coast again. But still, it all combined for a great run of 194 miles in the last 24 hours.
It’s another mostly clear day, and if the predictions are correct, I should continue to having following winds and seas.
20.07S 39.51W 3912nm gone, 1389nm to go. 8am 9/7