Last night was our first night sail in a long time so we set our storm sails before dark so that we would not have to fumble around in the darkness should a squall hit us in the night.
By morning, nothing had occurred and we were slowly moving along at 3 knots. Having 1200 miles to go, 3 knots is not a desirable speed.
I took down our trysail and set our main with two reefs in it to balance out the sailplan with the staysail. Our speed shot up to 5 knots and we were moving along comfortably.
All day, we have been on a beam reach heading north. We are in the westerlies but the winds are out of the east, something is brewing out there and is messing up the trade winds. Off our port side, to the west, comes a very large swell with an extraordinarily long interval, likely from a powerful low pressure system west of us. All we can do is wait while we make our way to Porto, Portugal.
The beauty of ocean sailing is that our next waypoint is 500 miles ahead, meaning we will be on this same tack and same direction for the rest of the week!
