The dust storm has slightly eased but is still following us, but we are making excellent progress on a broad reach in 20kt winds. Had to snuff the spinnaker yesterday when the wind speed increased, but now doing 6 – 8 kts speed over ground with two reefs in the genoa and full main. Distance to the North-West corner of Trinidad is 1,717 miles, PredictWind has been showing our ETA as Sunday Morning, Feb 11th, 2024 for the last several days.
Here is a picture of the dust storm (credit: https://www.copernicus.eu/en/media/image-day-gallery/dust-cloud-stretching-between-canary-islands-and-cabo-verde). Poor Nakee is filthy, red dust is on everything, even inside the boat. Once we sail clear of this mess, I will hook up the hose to the salt-water wash-down pump up in the bow locker, and give Nakee a good wash down with salt water. Then will get out some clean damp cloths and wood polish and start trying to wipe down all the surfaces inside the boat. Would be great to arrive in the sunny Caribbean with Nakee shipshape after Bristol fashion!
Spinnaker handling
Yesterday I had Andy stand by while I jibed the poled-out spinnaker single-handily for the the fist time. It wasn’t easy and took me 30 – 45 min (I didn’t think to time myself) but using fore and aft control lines for the outboard end of the pole, I was able to safely snuff the spinnaker and then slowly move the pole from the starboard side of the yacht to the port side, and then pull the sock up on the spinnaker. It was quite the confidence building experience and makes me think that in calm to moderate conditions I’d be able to fly the poled-out spinnaker or genoa when I’m next single-handing for real.