Dropped the spinnaker at 22.00 as the wind had strengthened to gusts of 24kts and the sea was a bit confused. An hour later the wind eased again and went more east, so we gybed the Genoa which had been poled out and hardened up and were able to still do about 6.5 knots. It is important that we do our best to hold speed for the next 24 hours in order to escape the patch of calm. And now the wind has eased a bit again! Very tricky!

I am feeling very tired – I have not been able to sleep during my off watch as the adrenalin from the spinnaker drop was still running and we both were so hot after all the effort! Water temp now 17C so it feels much warmer.

Bill getting some well earned rest now – he has worked so hard on weather and routing and boat speed!

I am going top have another look at the weather to see what the next 24 hours will bring and whether we can do anything about escaping from the calm patch that threatens to gobble us up and slow us right up for many valuable hours!

Carry on sleeping out there – except you in Aus Anne!

Tim