Another frustrating evening with fickle winds shifting all over the place . Anything from 2 knots up to 6 knots have been seen and the wind seeker has been up a few times with the boat speed down to 0.0. At about 0300 the wind seemed to make a positive shift to the west and stabilize around the 4-5 knot range. We changed up to the A1 and have been managing to keep the boat moving since then. Finally starting to make some small gains in the right direction.
This type of sailing certainly requires plenty of patience and concentration. Although we would Ike to be hurtling down wind in 20 knots it makes a change from the last couple of times we have been out on Dorade and has given us some good practice to learn about the sails and the boat in a light mode.
It seems like the patchy areas of pressure are becoming more consistent now and although its hard to tell this early I have a feeling we are getting into some solid gradient breeze.
Kevin just served up an excellent freeze dried burrito and I am going to get my head down for a couple of hours having been up most of the night enjoying the full moon, sunrise and getting the boat moving again.
The atmosphere is great on board and everybody is working hard to keep each other happy, motivated, well fed which means the boat is going as fast as it can for now.
More later and hopefully more wind
Ben