More wind finally
15 March 2016 | 04 34.490s:33 30.240w
Bill/partly cloudy
The morning started out with a squall smacking us from the stern. Just after 0600 with the Sun just starting to come up and the clouds revealing their true color(dark), I felt a few drops. Taking the color of the clouds as a hint of what might be coming, I quickly stowed all our electronics below deck. Computers, IPAD, flashlights, etc. All were taken below. It started teddy out as just a few drops so I had just a bit more time to put up the stern portion of our cockpit enclosure. As the rain got a bit heavier, I put on the port side panel and closed the roll up portion of the front of our dodger. As if on cue, it started to pour. The most rain we have seen in months, probably since Richards Bay on the east side of South Africa. By 0700, it was pouring hard enough that rain was coming in the stern port lites and getting Tracy wet as she slept. She closed the lites and came out into the main salon checking to see that all was fine. I finally put up the third an d final section of the enclosure as rain was pouring in. With the rain coming at us from the stern, it was pouring in through a flap on the top of the dodger and getting out chart plotters wet. I covered everything with towels just in case they were not truely water tight. Tracy took a paper plate and stuck it up at the ceiling of the dodger trying to stem the rain. Worked pretty well. Winds had gone up from about five knots to nineteen as the squall came through. It hit us at a different angle than what we had been sailing so I was glued to the wheel watching for each change of direction. From the right, then from the left, over and over. I was spinning the wheel trying to compensate for the wind shifts. In the end, we came out just fine and lots of the ash from Simons Town and sand, dirt and grit from Namibia were washed from out sails and deck. As I said earlier, it's the first rain we have seen in months. By just after 0800, it had passed us by and the winds w ere back in the ten knot range. I took off for a short nap leaving Tracy in the cockpit to have breakfast. At 1030, I came back to the cockpit and we gybed the sails again. In went the genoa sail and down came the pole. Lines were untied and shifted to the opposite side and the pole was hoisted again. Out came the genoa and we were off. Tracy headed below for her nap time. As I sat in the cockpit, the winds started to build to the high teens and we increased our speed nicely to be in the 6+ knot range. A big increase from the 3 we were doing most of yesterday. It's now several hours later and we are still making anywhere from 5.5 to 7 knots depending on the waves and swell. Tracy came out just after noon and made us lunch. This time, Red Chili Meat Enchiladas! Oh, I have died and gone to food heaven! What a treat.we each splurg d and even had Cokes with it. There was so much, neither one for us could finish so we have some for leftovers maybe tomorrow. The Sun is out and the skies are partly cloudy. We're still trying to maintain a course I feel between 290 and 300T. It's what we need to bypass the coastline of Brazil and head for the Caribbean. More later as the day is early. It's now 0100 and I just came back on watch. It looks like a squall is coming so we reduced to genoa sail and have pretty well closed up the cockpit. Tracy has seen some lightening so I'll be on the lookout for any more. Meanwhile, we have a ship,the Mar an, come up behind us, about four miles of ff our port side. I'll be watching it also. We can sure tell we are closer to the shipping lanes as we've seen lots more ship lately. More coming.