Saturday 21 November - Day four

Saturday 21 November - Day four - 344 miles from Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde
The wind speed is higher and so are the waves. The needle on the wind speed indicator centers on 30 knots, then goes up to about 35 or down to 25 as the boat rocks left and right with the waves. Rocks is not te right word - Jerks back and forth with the waves. We are riding with just about 25% genoa out giving us 5 knots for steerage. The good thing is that we are going almost downwind. Windy, the WindPilot windvane is steering, and has not been more than 10 degrees off the 135 degree mark. The huge waves come up behind us and look like they will swallow us, then the stern rises, the wave lifts us, passes under, and we settle in the deep trough between waves. At one point the waves conspired against us, and instead of passing under us the wave broke on top of us. Crash. (Big crash) I had a man-overboard retrieval device called a "Lifesling" on the port side rail. Also in the port rail is a storage bag containing the dinghy rigid seats. All that is left of the Lifesling are three velcro tabs that attached the container to the rail. The dinghy seats are still there, but two of the four attaching bolts have broken free. That was spectacular, but what is annoying is that when the wave lifts the boat to the max top of the wave, the wind blown spume from the top of the wave blows into the cockpit.
Break - New Subject: The sky is not blue but sortta white. The sun is a silver disc. The solar panels are only putting out a fraction of what they normally do. That is Sarah dirt. Because it is carried by the wind I thought it would be fine, like talcum powder. It is gritty, with discernable grains, and has an abrasive quality that it may really scratch sunglasses. It is gathering on the boat and the wind piles it up in corners, like snow. And combined with the spray the wind blows aboard the cockpit is really grubby.
And it is chilly, two shirts plus foulie chilly. But we are officially in the tropics and soon I will be complaining about it being too hot.
Maybe this wind will calm down some. I am getting bruised up.
Reef Early
Bill Doar
s/v Advent II