Pro's and cons

We've been having a good sailing weather for the most of yesterdayand
into the night.Main 1st reef and genoa full,doing a decent 5-6 kts and
the wind sitting between 10-13 kts constant.The sea was flat and we were
making good miles.In the early hours of the morning the wind started to
climb and the seastate deteriorated accordingly.Without hesitation I
woke Brad and we dropped the main to 2nd reef.Soon afterwards the wind
was up to 20 kts and we were ploughing through fairly big waves.So close
and yet so far.And yes,two up is taxing and we are a little bit
tired,but all good at the same time.The wind and seastate stayed like
this for the first half of today and two hours ago,as the weather file
predicted,the wind started dropping a bit.It was first coming from the
south east and is progressively backing.

Sailing on windvane mode,we were sailing in a north eastely
direction,straight to our waypoint at Cadiz.Progressively we are being
pushed up more north.Windvane mode we set the sails and the angle at
which we sail,and as the wind direction changes,so the direction in
which we sail also changes.There are certain angles one can't sail
at,the so called no go zone,when the wind is to close from the front.At
a 45* angle one gets some power out of the sails on a cat,but more so as
you go into the 50' and up,all around to the other side.We expect the
wind to back all the way to the west and will then have the wind from
behind for our last stretch to Cadiz,which is now less than 70 nm away.

We expect to arrive at Cadiz in the early hours of the morning and may
slow down a bit until it gets light.If we sail to fast we are also ready
to do a night entry.My pilotage plan is ready,and although all the city
lights makes this a daunting exercise,we are trained to do this.Crossing
the busiest shipping channel in world just add to the equation.Ships of
all sizes coming from all directions,all the time.

But soon we will be in Spain.We would love to rest a little at Cadiz,but
there are pros and cons to it.The cons are that the weather window is
excellent for us to go through Gibraltar asap and take us deep into
the Med.And if we linger,we the window will close on us and we will be
paying the price later.There are other factors too.We have to clear
customs and immigration.If we can't do this over the weekend,we may only
be able to get away on Monday.The pro's in this scenario is that we will
be able to go and explore a little bit of Spain.Go look for a bull and
wave a red flag at him and then run for our lives screaming and yelling
ole'! ole'!The cons to this is if the bull catches up to us.So which way
will the dice roll and how fill it fall.Time will tell.

Our new crewmember,Felix,is probably already waiting for us in Cadiz and
will sleep over in a hotel for the night.We get to meet him tomorrow.He
will never be able to replace Pieter,and he won't be expected to
either.He will bring his own personality to the boat and we will see how
the vrew dynamics work out.We are positive that he will make a great
contribution,as Pieter did,and as we all do.

We will keep you posted.

Paul