A Squally Sail

When we left Salvador, I had stocked up like we were setting off for a 6 month expedition into the great unknown, mostly because, we had no idea where we were going next. This leg to Recife is just a two day hop (still in Brazil), so we are probably going to have to make another swift exit once we get there.  Grab Angela and head out. Ah, the nomadic sailor life!

Departure from Itaparica was smooth, blue skies, gentle waves and we were cruising along beautifully. Eric took first watch, as per usual. But the ocean, being the drama queen she is, decided we were having it way too easy. One moment we were gliding along, the next, we were getting tossed around like kids on a trampoline in the rain, without the laughter though.😳  The swell had become extremely choppy and large.

One moment we are rocketing on with 30 knots of wind and the next we crawling with less than 8 knots of wind, the squalls started coming at us like uninvited guests to a private party. The Captain powered through a marathon shift from 12 lunch time to 21:00 before the weather had settled enough for Makyla to take over, so that he could get some rest. By then the weather had calmed down, although the swell was still rather large most likely showing off for the full moon, but it was a whole lot more comfortable.

Fast forward to 4:00 a.m. We’ve been at sea for 16 hours. The sky’s finally cleared up, and we are doing a steady 6 knots, the mood is salty but hopeful. As I came off my shift at around 06:00am and fell into a blissful sleep, I was woken by the sound of the peace killer, that dreaded motor, the wind has finally ghosted us. The main sail is down and the genoa is even tucked away and we are plodding toward Recife like a dead sea turtle.

While I was stilly trying to work on my beauty sleep the guys had discovered that one of the genoa sheets had frayed and also one of the reefing lines from the main sail appeared to have had a rough night, both of these got clearly added to the figure it out later list. 

After wondering why my phone has been so quite I realise we have no internet, this means we are unable to check the weather, as I gaze into the distance I see the big black blobs in the sky and I am really hoping we are not going to deal with another weather system, well no internet so we cannot check. Cruising on.