update

We've had quite a variance today in wind intensity. This morning started very slow then at noon a small squall came along and gave us a bit of a lift for awhile but eventually died down again. After a hot afternoon and a beautiful sunset the wind has picked up to where we've been making 8 to 10 knots of speed and about 7 of that VMG. We are currently 442 miles from Barbados; hopefully we can maintain most of this speed throughout the night but it takes a fair amount of vigilance at the helm to maintain a wind angle between 90 and 120 apparent. If the wind angle gets to be less than 90, it puts a bit too much pressure on the gennaker and starts to approach its design rating and risks tearing. So we just need to adjust our heading by a few degrees to port. If the wind angle gets to be greater than 120 then the boat slows way down to about 6 knots. Adjusting our course to starboard by a few degrees jumps our speed right back up (even though we're pointing a little further away f
rom the direction we want to go, our VMG is better overall).
My watch starts in 1.5 hours so I'm going to catch a little rest first.