So Much for Trade Winds

07/25/02

    Well, so much for the trade winds.  Yesterday afternoon the wind started dropping.  First, we had the problem that the wind was shifting a little, and the waves were rolling the boat back and forth faster than the wind speed.  This resulted in a horrific pounding for the mainsail, which was making dreadful banging noises and taking quite a lot of punishment.  Eric says he suffers more sail damage when the wind is less than 10 knots than when the wind is blowing hard.  In fact, the motion of the mainsail was so intense that it broke the snap shackle right off the end of the boom vang!  We replaced the boom vang with a spare and replaced the shackle on the other one. 

    After all this, we decided to drop the main altogether and just run with the jib and the staysail.  This arrangement worked well for a while, until the wind died altogether, and Eric decided to furl the jib and start the engine.  This morning, the wind picked up again, and we raised the main.  Unfortunately, two hours later the wind has died again, and we are once again motoring with 60 miles to go to Porto Grande.  At this rate we will be arriving about 10 at night, and will anchor in the outer harbor and go in Friday morning.

    The remnant waves from the past three days of wind in combination with the lack of wind yesterday afternoon made for some challenging boat motion.  Somehow I have avoided any bouts with queasiness on this leg (I hope that means I’m getting used to it!), but have been experiencing headaches the last couple of days.

    Even though we are in the tropics, the weather has seemed untropical so far.  The sky has been covered with a gray haze, and we haven’t seen much of the sun until now.  Also the temperature has been quite moderate.  This has been helped by the fact that we have had the breeze blowing directly into our companionway all this time.