Sailing under alternating weather conditions, and only a few days off from Cape Town

Some news from the past few days: we have been having a some nice
sailing, really. The sea state has settled just a bit, we now have more
regular ocean swells of 1-2meters, which are more managable for keeping
a steady course. The wind has been a bit tricky: changing both direction
and speed, challenging us for major sail changes through the days.
Therefore, the past few days have been physically pretty challenging:
change from white sails to spinnikar, and back, then drop them all, reef
the main in, then out. Trim, trim, trim...

The weather conditions have been as deviating as the wind state as well,
from a sunny warmish day to a freezing cold, rainy and dark night.
ie: we had a freezing cold watch from 3 to 6 am this morning. Pretty
damp with rain drizzels now and then. Wind was gusting from 20 knots to
30 knots and back, knocking the boat to a sharp tilt. Had to get the
yankee down and put two reefs in. Helming was a challenge on its own:
surf the swells and fight against the gusts while personally fighting
against the icy cold (yes, I had my fair share of it). Having two woolen
base layers, thick mid layers and foulies on still could not keep the
cold out, I had to creep into my sleeping bag and launch some warm
patches to heat up my hands and feet as soon as the shift was over,
cold was so draining... Then 12 pm shift greeted us with a sunny day,
blue sky with patches of clouds looking like scattered cotton pieces, a
nice steady breeze coming from behind. Spinniker up once again, and
layers significantly reduced...

Were now just a few days off from Cape Town, bets are that we'll be
there on late Saturday, if all goes well. Unfortuntaely, after the
several patches of still & foul weather we fell into, we're not
competing for the top ranks this time. Looks like we'll be finishing
9th. We're not allowing this to reflect into our sailing though, still
pushing hard to get the most out of the wind we have, and prove that
when weather permits, we're a great sailing team.

While everyone on board, especially the leggers, share mixed feelings
about arriving to Cape Town: we want to finish as fast as we can in a
racing perspective, however feel regretful that it's coming to an end.
Well, alike all good things I assume...

So much so for the day... Will catch up on a bit of sleep now, before my
night shift
Keep an eye on me...