The first few days we’ve had very light winds from the South West, right in the direction we want to be sailing in, beating into it slowly has been frustrating and very slow at times but it has eased us all in and we’re settling into our watches. Last night the wind shifted to an Easterly, blowing off the Sahara, and this morning we were able to put the asymmetric sail up and let out the boom of the mainsail to make the most of the wind. The seas have been building, yesterday we had long ocean swells of approximately 3m but no wind and today the wind the been whipping up the waves to about 2m. The boat rolls as we cut through the water so we’ve rigged a preventer to the boom to stop the main sail from whipping across the boat uncontrollably. With winds reaching 21 knots (force 5) at times we peaked at a speed of 8.5 knots. It got a bit fruity for a while! We’re expecting a couple of tricky days ahead as the winds are quite fickle. We are taking a route towards Cape Verde and then heading west where we hope we’ll pick up the trade winds.