L'Eau Commotion Westabout

6:00pm Saturday 2nd December 2017 ( UTC-2 ) During the latter part of the afternoon the Sargassum weed floating on the surface has become more prevalent such that it was collecting on the paddle of the WindPilot and causing the yacht, which was set to run dead before the wind, to either round up to Port, backing the poled out jib or fall away to Starboard and backing the main. Whilst neither was a real problem as the pole and boom were all secured it was however, with the increasing breeze of around 15 knots unpleasant to hear the groaning of the unfair strain put on the sheets and the sails pressed against the standing rigging. In addition to clear the weed from the fin, sail drive rudder and paddle it was necessary to come up into the wind with the same unfair strains. Accordingly the course was altered to South a little earlier than planned and with the apparent wind now just aft of the beam the steering input is less critical and the course and speed have shown a slight improvement. As luck would have it the lates t forecasts just now received seemed to show that this is the most advantageous direction to get us through the ITCZ. Mind you none of the above altered the fact that it was a pleasant days sail with the sun becoming visible through a much lighter dust haze only a few minutes after sunrise, a fresh blue sunny day and now an almost full moon.