Quiet night

Similar to last night, we had a bit of a wind shift over night so that when I came on watch at 5am our heading was 290. That's a bit north of our intended bearing to Barbados (277) but the best we could manage in that wing-on-wing configuration.
So I pulled down the main and rolled out the genoa. In that dual-headsail configuration we could sail the rhumb line at about 6.2 knots (also 6.2 VMG as we were on the rhumb)
Afterward I pulled new weather and all weather models say to head south at approximately 225 to avoid light winds ahead on the rhumb line. So I rolled the genoa back in and re-hoisted the main and changed course to 230. We're a bit faster on this tack (over 8 knots) so maintained the VMG we were doing sailing the rhumb.

It's a bit of an incredulous experience each time it occurs; I suppose at some point I'll get used to it. Running direct downwind, in relatively light winds (10-15knots), everything is peaceful and quiet. It feels like the boat is almost standing still. If you put your face to the wind you can just barely feel a breeze. The water is very quiet as the hulls go through the water and the boat's motion is minimal. If asked, you'd say "there's almost no wind out here now".
Changing course by 45 degrees brings a significant increase in speed with 30 seconds. The wind on your face has gone from barely discernible to making you think "it would be a great day to fly a kite". The boat's motion gets way more active and the sound of the rush of water as it churns behind the boat sounds a bit like standing on a beach with mild surf crashing on the shore. At this point if asked you'd say "quite a windy day out here on the ocean, I should keep an eye to the weather to prepare to reef if the wind gets any stronger".
It's quite an amazing phenomenon. Of course I'm easily amazed :-)
Average speed in the last 24 hours is 7.1knots. Resetting it now.