| Sunday and Monday saw the same unsettled weather. However, unlike the previous seven days when the skies were overcast, the skies now were clear to partly cloudy. The wind was still 25-30 knots and higher during squalls, but the seas were down to 10 to 15 feet with some 20 foot seas intermixed. On Sunday we experienced many squalls, except that now the wind seemed to oscillate between 35 knots down to 10-15 knots briefly following each squall causing quite a bit of rock�n�rolling during the lull due to lack of sail up. As the days were getting warmer, we no longer needed jackets during night watches. Tuesday we continued to have the same weather with winds 25-30 knots, oscillating between 40 to 15 knots briefly during and after squalls. The only change was that the seas were now down to 10 feet. As we were currently south of our track, we changed back in the morning to a starboard broad reach, still using the engine to very slowly �come about� due to the sea conditions. Around noon, our boat jibed due to a freak wave. Luckily no damage was done, but a half hour later we noticed that the main sheet had come out of the blocks, an unusual occurrence. Working the problem, Phil slowly maneuvered the boat into the wind, took the main sail down, and reattached the sheet. After 8 days of "hanging-on", the weather finally began to moderate Wednesday morning with winds 20-25 knots and seas 8-10 feet except during squalls. As a result, we were finally able to just jibe the boat when changing back to a port broad reach due to being north of track. In the afternoon we passed 053 degrees west, and it felt like we had passed over a �magic� line. Now, the winds were 15-20 knots and seas 5-6 feet. In fact, everything felt different. Even the air smelled tropical, reminding us of the South Pacific. This was the type of weather that we had originally expected during much of this passage, and now it was finally happening. With the settled weather, we started to take out some of the reefs in our sails. Thursday through Saturday the settled weather continued with winds 15-20 knots and seas 6-10 feet. As we approached Antigua, it was important to sail closer to our course. We jibed over to a starboard broad reach on Friday, and then back to a port broad reach on Saturday. In the previous four days we had had such poor propagation that we were unable to report our position using email. Luckily during two of those days we were able to transmit our position to the Ham Maritime Mobile Service Net which in turn posted our position report. Finally Thursday evening, we once more had adequate propagation to send and receive emails. With the settled weather we once again were enjoying our meals out in the cockpit. |
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