Well we had some wind overnight, it had shown on the grib forecasts for a few days which is why we did all our prep yesterday even though the other bulletins were saying Friday was the day.  Started picking up from 3am and we had 25 – 28knots until lunchtime today which built up some nice waves for us.  We put the mainsail down yesterday evening and just went downwind on the Genoa which worked pretty well and meant we could point pretty much dead downwind.

Mid morning we had excitement as we were poised to become the filling in a ship sandwich.   Although the chances of 2 boats wanting to be in the same piece of Ocean at the same time have to be pretty slim – this morning we had 3 boats all v close and it was a little tense with only a mile or so visibility and a container ship steaming straight towards us, while a fishing vessel headed straight in on our beam. .  . and all in rough seas.   We were watching on Radar and on AIS, but it was good when we finally saw them! – had to turn across the waves to duck behind the fishing boat (which wasn’t fishing at the time) – we made the choice – we would rather be within half a mile of a fishing boat than within a mile of a 800 foot container ship.  But why do these things happen when visibility and wind are at their worst? – after lunch time today the weather has all calmed down and we haven’t seen one other boat.

Expecting some more wind tomorrow but maybe not so much as today but will get the weather later on.  Slowly the miles are going down – at least they went a little quicker this morning!