Titania - Day Four: Goose wings

All right everyone, now that we've introduced ourselves (on Monday) and spoken about the fish that we didn't catch (on Tuesday), let's talk about what we are all here for, i.e. sailing. After all, that is the one thing we do non-stop over this trip and we thought you might find it interesting to know a bit more about our #1 activity !
 
First, let's take a step back on our weather conditions. Since our departure on Sunday we've enjoyed beautiful sunny weather, with only a few clouds here and there -but no rain so far-. T-shirts and shorts for everyone. This should roughly remain unchanged for the rest of the trip. Anecdotally, for those of you reading this blog somewhere in cold Europe, you should know that we've just entered into the Tropics this morning and that the sea temperature is 24.5C !
 
Since Day 1, we've also benefited from the so called Trade Winds - as expected at this time of the year, even if climate change has in some cases disrupted this beautiful natural process over the last few years. Well not this year. For those of you who are not familiar with winds, Trade Winds are gentle, stable Westward winds created by the rotation of the Earth. They blow from around the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, at relatively stable speeds of typically 15 to 25 knots. Fantastic for sailors like us who want to cross the Atlantic Ocean in relatively easy and stable conditions - downwind most of the time. These winds were used before us by big sailing ships (hence the name "Trade" winds") and are now used by sailors like us to reach the Caribbean at the end of November each year.
 
Which is what takes us to our photo of the day, Titania sailing downwind under so called Goose Wings. This has been by far our main sail set up since we've left the Canary Islands.
 
Goose Wings is the name given to the set up where we have our genoa on a pole on one side and our mainsail (held in place by the preventer) on the other side. Both sails are open to their maximum to catch as much wind as possible, as per the photo. Beyond this being pretty efficient in terms of speed to destination, this set up has the benefit of being very comfortable and safe as it requires limited maneuvers to put it in place and it is very easy to deal with.
 
Another way to catch as much wind as possible when going downwind is by using our spinnaker. But this will be the detailed subject of another of our blogs.
 
Pierre