Day one and night one are as predicted: rough seas, high winds, squalls all night long, which means very very little sleep for both of us. Day two, only one or two squalls and 20 knots East-Southeasterly winds. Our weather guru announces that we will probably have North winds very soon and that, as the front approaches our area, the winds will clock towards the west, giving us a real good sail in the Southeasterly direction towards the Islands. Great. But they do not come the westerlies...nope, the winds remain Southeasterly, may be Easterly, but not West and not North. This means that we have the wind on the nose which slows us down, even when motoring as on the next following days. The swells from the Northeast are huge at times because of the gales north of us and this brings the boat to roll for hours at a time. Thursday, we are informed that in the time frame when we approach the Eastern Carribean, the trade winds will have gained strength and that we should try to head more southeasterly in order to have a better angle to cope with the choppy seas. More easterly???????? We’ll be in Africa in no time! But we follow the advice and this will prove to have been to our advantage because the winds will remain southeasterly up to the last 24 hrs before our arrival in the Virgins.
Les premiers 24 heures en mer furent comme annoncés: mer très forte, vents forts et grains (coups de vents violents avec pluie) fréquents ce qui ne nous permis pas de dormir...le lendemain, les prédictions météo annonçaient une diminution de tous les facteurs et notre moral fut à la hausse. Malheureusement, pour les prochains jours, les vents ne vinrent pas du nord ou de l’ouest comme promis...seulement de la direction où nous allions, soit le sud-est...nous nous devions quand même de faire un effort de rester à l’est pour pouvoir approcher les Iles comfortablement malgre les Alizés qui souffleraient assez fort pendant le prochain weekend...du stress en perspective.