November 4 – we’re like toddlers figuring out how to work our new toy – the pole. It’s awkward for us but we believe going to be ever valuable.
November 5 – My watch: 3-6am. The sun rose but struggled to throw its rays down fully upon us since clouds were stretching the eastern horizon in long, dark strands. Made for a beautiful, bright orange sunrise – postcard perfect. Sails were full and were going at a decent clip – 6-7 knots. Everyone else was asleep except the dolphins who came to swim in our bow wake. I walked forward to watch them play and leap about. Such amazing creatures with grace and speed.
Today was the best sailing yet! We’re getting better at using our spinnaker pole. We deployed it with the spinnaker going downwind and promptly made 3+ knots more headway. Just the mainsail up was not bad (~5.5 knots) but adding spinnaker was even better. We cruised easily and more smoothly at 8-9 knots almost all day and arrived earlier than expected into Bahia Santa Maria around 8:45pm instead of the estimated midnight or 1am. The winds were 10-15 knots all day. We passed a lot of boats and maintained a desired heading of 121 degrees since our destination was 130 degrees. I don’t know why we didn’t get a pole like this sooner!
Love the photos and the update!