DAY 17 ... TRADEWIND SAILING

Gaviota
Mon 19 Jan 2009 11:00
35:20.311N 28:18.850W
At 1000 local time (1100 gmt)  distance run in last 23 hours 1 miles
Welcome back Mum.... you have a lot of reading to catch up on!
 
So 30 degree west now passed and clocks forward 1 hour again.... that feels better, feels as though we are getting somewhere - it wasnt all that long ago they went forward last time.
So the day turned into a glorious and fast sleigh ride down the atlantic rollers..It was exact tradewind sailing .. its just we are nowhere near where they blow! ... So wing on wing, 2 reefs in main but full genny so we were pulled along rather than pushed (makes steering the boat much easier and why we did the ARC with 2 genny`s) Wind 20 to 25 knots occasionally 30, sunny and a very carefull eye on george with quite a lot of minor corrections to keep everything nicely in balance. During the afternoon it  dropped a bit 18 to 22 knots and still going nicely but sometime in the night I was expecting a major northerly shift in the wind... In the end decided must carry on with the pole out or the balance would be lost ... so away through the night she went.... Shift occurred at 7 am so a good decision and just getting to a twilight type of light so no problem  .. by half 7 we are off again on a broad reach (pole stowed) but the wind only 15 knots from the north west so slowed down quite a lot.