Day 16 - More stormy weather

Today was another day of quickly changing clouds and stormy weather. And the winds shifted too much today, so that we needed to also change our sailing configuration to a mainsail/foresail combination, instead of the double foresail/butterfly setup that we had most of the time in the last few weeks.

This sail rolls more and lies more to one side I think, but in the end it is still good. However to hoist the main sail up, or reef it down, one has to go out onto the deck, which is not the most fun or safe activity while it's raining like mad during a squall. Hence we have it almost completely reefed in, and only take out the Genoa fully because it can be reeled in from the safety of the cockpit.

Today, just like the last days, we had lots of rain and squalls too. By now we're pretty much used to it and know what to expect. Oh, there's a big cloud on the horizon. Let's turn on the radar, see where it's moving. Oh, it's headed our way, bring in the sails. The wind starts shifting, accelerating away from the cloud and reaching 20-30 knots easily. It starts pouring, the sails make noises under the stress. It stops and the sun comes out again. These squalls are a weird phenomenon. Just 30 minutes of rain, followed by the purest of sunshine again.

The nice thing is this sort of cloudy sky makes for great sunsets and today we saw another beautiful one.

I also made some fish curry with some of the leftover frozen fish we still have. By now we are nearing the end of the journey so we just finish the fish we have already caught instead of trying to get more. The fish curry turned out different from what I wanted to cook, but still tasted rather good.

In the end of the day, the wind started dying down almost completely and now during the night, we are motoring with sails tucked away and almost no wind. Also there are now more cargo ships again, so night watches are more interesting for different reasons than squalls and rain. Hopefully we can sail again tomorrow, but the weather model predicts that the last days will be flat. No winds. :(

But yeah, it's the last days already. While I am writing this it's early Friday morning during the night shift from Thursday, and we will most likely reach Guadeloupe some time tomorrow, i.e. Saturday afternoon. The feeling of excitement is by now also mixed with relief. One starts dreaming of the land, of internet, of taking showers, of being able to exercise and sleep through the entire night. The allure of being back to civilization is there, but it's also mixed with a tint of, "I can't believe this is already over" sadness. Let's see what tomorrow brings though.