Tuesday 08 December

Tuesday 08 December - 1545 miles from Cape Verde Islands
The Canary Islands are dry, almost no rainfall. The public Utility warer in Lanzarote is all desalinated. In Cape Verde Islands we had to buy water for the tanks. I think I have seen rain only twice since maybe the Azores. In the past few days we have discovered that those white puffy clouds I have been enjoying so much have rain in them. Not much, but a heavy sprinkle. As of last night they have become bothersome. Day or night they are obvious up in the sky so you can see them coming. The first thing is that over about two minutes the windspeed increases about 10 knots. So, being always alert that is the time to frantically furl the genoa. Hopefully the genoa gets furled in time to go below before the rain starts. It heavily sprinkles for about ten minutes as the wind dies. Then it takes 30 maybe 45 minutes for the wind to slowly pick back up again. As we move west the air is getting noticeably warmer and the sprinkles get more frequent. Another thing is the water temperature back in the Canaries was 71 degrees F. That is OK for the Northern Europeans for pleasure swimming but not me. I just measured the temp here and it is 81 degrees F. I am looking forward to some afternoon swims. It has been a long time.
Reef Early
Bill Doar
s/v Advent II