During Roy’s initial watch of the night, 2000 to 2300, the conditions calmed down, which afforded Elaine a good sleep. Unfortunately, soon after she came on watch, the conditions deteriorated again, with wind, current and swell on the nose, making for an uncomfortable ride. After changing course and trying to power through with both engines, she eventually decided that one engine, at a slightly higher RPM, gave us the sweet spot we needed for the remainder of the night.

This configuration served us well until this afternoon, when both the wind and the current increased in strength and the swell moved around to the northeast, taking our SOG (Speed Over Ground) to around 4.5 Kts. However, this all meant we couldn’t turn north, since we’d be slamming into the swell even more and going west-southwest would reduce our DMG (Distance Made Good), the latter never a good thing to happen on any passage. Instead, it was time to put on both engines!

So, at 1630, that’s what we did; two engines at a lower RPM to ensure we wouldn’t have to spend two additional nights at sea and make all the great progress we’d made up until yesterday all for naught. Time, of course, will tell, if this strategy proves successful!

Of course, all of this weather is completely out of the norm, in that we should be experiencing northeasterly winds at this time of the year and, of course, this unpredicted weather has occurred towards the end of the passage, when we are getting tired; Murphy must be tickled pink!

On the plus side, we’re getting the rest we need, we still have fresh produce to enjoy, we’re still moving forward in the direction we need to be, albeit at a slower pace and less comfortable and the forecast indicates an improvement in the conditions tomorrow. We might even get a sail in if we’re lucky!

Tonight, under a magnificent starry night, we continue northwest along our rhumb line to Uligamu, with Talulah Ruby III (Andy and Paul) for company on our port side and the endless stream of cargo ships to our starboard side.