Hi all,

Position: 36-54S 000-55E
COG: 090T
SOG: 4.5KN sailing beam reach SB tack

ETA Cape Town 28 APR 2023 LAM (appr. 950 miles to go)

Okay, where were we. Ah yes, Wednesday, sailing close-hauled on starboard tack with the wind backing. This phenomenon pushed us off the straight to Cape Town and onto a course due north by midday.

As the wind continued backing (and decreasing), we decided to wear and reverse course to the south, to prepare for the wind backing even more. Tacking would have been a nice excercise, but the lack of wind and presence of swell didn't make that a viable option.

As we trimmed all the sails after wearing ship, the wind backed more and already we were on a better course towards Cape Town and getting better with every degree the wind kept backing.

In the evening we were under overcast skies again and both watches did tabletop fire drills.

During Thursday, the backing continued as the low behind us approached and the wind had picked to 7 Bft by midday.
In the evening the conditions got even more interesting with torrential rain and heavy gusts.

At the 02:00 watch change. we braced the yards as square as possible, without moving the tacks on deck. This made the ride a bit better. Later in the early morning we had another big sail-handling session when the wind had backed enough to call it a beam reach. With decks awash, the voyage crew loved to be on deck and help with pulling lines and making the ship sail faster and more comfortable.

Now we were starting to see speeds towards 10kn and by breakfast we had reduced our average to do from 5.8, back to the 5.6 we had when leaving Tristan.