35’38.77N, 060’35.94W

 

The weather is certainly on our side today, in celebration at lunch, we cracked one of only three tubes of pringles! The watches are slowly taking shape, mainly due to the amount of darkness at the moment, there must have been 11 hours of darkness last night. Bob likes doing the first 6 hour and I like the second 6 hour watch. This is a sure sign that we’re approaching winter, the clocks have gone back already in the UK. The watches tend to be uneventful, as we set Serica up so one person can manage her at night. Last night, Serica got caught on a wave and gust of wind on my watch and she gybed herself, took me best part of 30 mins to get her back on track.

 

As the sun came up, I took the opportunity to walk round the decks to check for any damage, it was the first opportunity since we left Hampton. Good news, only slight damage to stanchions that we could repair. The picture below was taken from the bow this morning.

 

 

The rigging lines are a mess, with Serica they only run as far as the base of the mast, on modern boats the lines run back to the cockpit, making it much easier to reef and adjust the main sail. You can just about make out two reefs in the main sail, and notice the sea a lot calmer.