Wet Clothes

MILANO BLANCO
James Blackburn
Thu 9 Jul 2009 22:27
08 July 2009 noon 39:11.07N 41:27.9W
 
Paul:
 
We had a lot of strong wind yesterday afternoon, unexpectedly, the weather forecasts we had received for 6am & 6pm gave the winds at 10-15 knots, what they did not tell us was that inbetween they were going to be 35-40 knots. Some of the waves reached 30 foot from top to bottom.
 
The night went fairly calmly as the wind had dropped, just a few heavy rain showers. I managed to dodge a couple of the heavier rain showers by putting in gybes.
 
This morning we were supposed to have a gentle 15 knot breeze but it was more like 25. Fortunately the wind has been behind nearly all the way, which has made the blows much more tolerable.
 
I have almost no dry clothing left and with the wind as it has been over the 5 days, we have had no chance to dry anything.
 
We have travelled 146.2nm in the last 24 hours at an average speed of 6.1knots.