The wind turned light on us last night  but we were able to keep sailing – albeit slightly south of our intended course. Although the course deviation was really minor, we’re in a location that if we stray too far, we end up with the wrong weather – either no wind or too much. Actually right now it’s either wind or no wind…

So this morning we decided to gybe over and regain some lost latitude (turn left, head north!), which meant sailing wing on wing, dead downwind with genoa one side, main the other. Very doable, but a little anxious as accidental gybes can happen quite easily if the helm isn’t kept in great control. But the wind kept dropping and we felt we didn’t have enough sail up – so we set up a sail arrangement I’ve been wanting to try out for years!

We took down the main altogether. The genoa was poled out to port and then we raised the code zero, with it’s sheet held out to starboard with a block placed on the end of the main boom which we’d swung as far out to starboard as we could. 2 large ‘pole out’ headsails kept our course at true dead downwind (NE) and we managed to make 5 – 6 knots in just 8 to 10 knots of true wind. It was very cool!

We made enough northing by the end of the day that we were able to fall off and raise the main again and we’ve been flying ever since; due east (our desired course) at between 7.5 and 8.5 knots.

According to our weather forecaster, we should be able to maintain these winds for another day or so – but then it’s likely to fall very calm and we’ll probably motor for a day or so…

So far we’ve managed to keep our use of the engine to an absolute minimum – less than 10% of the time… Excellent!

It’s a beautiful clear evening, with a nearly full moon giving us excellent light throughout the night. Life is good aboard Toodle-oo! – though we could really use some decent movies to watch!!!