Sailing in the trade winds is a dream come true for sailors. These are the steady winds that blow from east to west near the equator, creating ideal sailing conditions for trade ships for centuries. But for a sailor who promised to write daily updates for this blog, trade winds are not a subject matter that has much variation. The days are mostly the same, with nothing but blue sky and water in sight. It's probably a better experience for Rhona as she's lucky enough to have me all to herself. The only excitement we had yesterday was when the wind shifted twice, forcing us to gybe and change course. And last night, we had to turn on the engine for a few hours as the wind died down completely. I hope you don't mind these reports, but that's the reality of sailing in the trade winds. Maybe tomorrow will bring something more adventurous. Or maybe not. I actually prefer it when it's not exciting, because excitement usually means something is going wrong or about to go wrong. And when things go wrong, they tend to snowball into bigger problems. Like that time we hit a whale and had to patch up a hole in the hull. Or that time we were attacked by pirates and had to fight them off with our bare hands. Or that time we ran out of water and had to drink our own - OK, I made those up, but you get the idea. Sailing in the trade winds is not an entertaining blog subject unless you're naturally gifted at writing. You do get a lot of time to think about things you wouldn't normally consider. A recurring concern I have when we are sailing miles from land is yawning and my mouth getting stuck open. Passage making is more like a long road trip, except you can't stop for gas or snacks. So a perfect trip won't result in any thrilling stories from me and I'll try to do 2 small yawns instead of one big one. And I've expanded slightly on my theme of pictures titled 'sailing in the dark'. This one is called 'sailing in the trade winds at night'.
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