Showers

16 March 2017

Update by captain Maarten:
“Going really fast is good fun and good for the moral, but we also have to arrive somewhere. So just going as fast as we can to the west is over. The wind is turning more and more east so our course is more and more broad reach. Yesterday we set the course again and sailed into the night. The wind was supposed to increase a bit but nothing special. In the end, it was a busy night of concentrated steering… After dinner, the first big shower came down with a little bit of extra wind. Good for the ship as all the Sahara dust got washed away.
Not much later the second shower hit us, a lot more rain and a lot more (variable) wind. Then another shower and another and another… in the morning we looked like drowned rats, but the ship is really nice and clean!
This morning we took away the mainsail and set the topsails with all square sails up; we are sailing downwind in one straight line to Barbados.
Barbados? Yes, Barbados. At the start of the voyage we asked everyone to write down where and when we would drop our anchor first and it turns out everyone expected Barbados. It’s always nice to be able to meet the expectations if possible. And besides that: I have never been to Barbados…”