Atlantic blog: An enemy turned into a friend

1/12 Position: 17°01´26"N 39°08´14"W

A couple, three days with too bad wind pass and we lose speed towards the goal. The average speed is around 5 knots and the time left to the finish begins to resemble something that we have neither water, food nor toilet paper left to cope with. Squalls pass from time to time and we notice that we get a few more seconds of wind if we get close to them. Our enemy has now become a friend that we like to visit, or close to, sometimes.

Yesterday we had to quickly eat Johan Wolf's homemade pizza when we saw a suitable squall in sight. The rather dense rain shower with high clouds is observed for a few minutes to figure out the direction and then we set a suitable course to sail close but not end up in it. Our 5 knots become 9 knots in an hour and we feel really happy with our newfound strategy.

At night we see squalls on the radar. The rain appears as red dots on the screen and we can set our course accordingly. The problem is if these form close to the boat, then it may be time to take down the gennaker and reef to prepare for a rainy and overly strong passage just above the boat.

Mathias

(photo by: Mathias Edberg)