Smooth seas, light winds, good weather.

A day employed in preparations for the trade winds to come, reeving studding-sail gear.

These additional sails, set at the end of the yards in light winds, require time to get everything ready for them both aloft and on the decks. Their poles went up yesterday, halyards and sheet blocks this morning, lines ran through them this afternoon. Now we just have to make it to areas where the winds are fair enough to set them and help us on our progress towards Walvis Bay.

For the last three days, we barely touched sails and braces, sailing on steady northwesterlies.

Tonight, things changed. First, the breeze eases down a bit. The sky starts clouding up, squalls give scattered signals appearing on the radar south of us, announcing a forecasted wind and weather change.

Clouds pass by, from which we got just a touch of precipitation. Wind veers and slightly picks up.

Well then, all that means a busy start of the night watches.

There is a possibility that the approaching showers bring wind shifts both in direction and force, so better prepare the ship for it. Upper and Lower Staysails are pulled down, Courses clewed up, Spanker brailed.

Not much later, and after realizing that the wind shifts are happening gradually instead of suddenly and in a blast, it is time to change tack. Braces are pulled tight on port side, headrig passed over the stays, Courses set on close-hauled position, Spanker and the rest of the staysails set again on the new tack. The eastbound steering we have been following for a while now turns into a northeasterly course.

We sail in an area of quite variable winds, uncertain how the Subtropical High Pressure System is behaving, how much we will be affected by a small Low Pressure approaching from the back, how far it is still to catch the good old Trade Winds. But so far, course is good, speed not so bad either. The weather is sunny and the seas calm.