So Gust of Wind got a little more than a gust last night. 52.4 knots to be exact. We are hit by a deep front which pummelled us for 36 hours culminating in a period of extreme gusts, we had no option but to take down the solent and reefed down to 3^rd Reef. Just before this, the strain of the gusts on the rudders sheared one of the rudder pins, leaving us with a few anxious moments imagining ourselves hand steering on a single rudder in galeforce  conditions. Sam of course was well prepared and whipped out the spare pin he had bought just in case ! He and Justin fixed it in a jiffy in those conditions in the middle of the night. Shortly afterwards, we found the gusts had blown the wind speed meter right off the top of the mast together with the ticolor. And to top it all, the winches got such a soaking that the starboard code zero sheet winch shorted out leaving us to hand winch ! The wind of course had built up a huge sea which frequently broke over the boat soaking the helmsman. We decided to play it safe and spent the rest of the with just a main sail under 3^rd reef and most of the solent furled up, doing just 3 or 4 knots – downwind. All those long fought for upwind miles lost…… Every time a squall came through, we were forced to furl up the solent, and as it passed to unfurl again. Im impressed that Gust of Wind came out relatively unscathed. All in all a busy night.

This morning brought much calmer conditions, albeit with a very lumpy sea, which has calmed during the day. We are now cruising along with the code zero up doing 11 to 14 knots. Havent a clue how hard the wind is blowing! Anyway, all those years of dingy sailing and trimming sails be feel is now paying dividend.

Havent been able to eat a hot meal for a few days due to the wind so loomking forward to the beef stew that Matthew has spent the afternoon cooking up!

And happy hour of course!