Position
26 09N
18 25W
Today is glorious. Light blue sky with a few scattered cumulus, deep blue
sea with whitecaps. We have good breeze NE F6 and we are trucking at 10
knots - 12 -13 when we pick up the waves which is every minute or so - on a
heading of about 255 deg. Our sailplan is jobtop headsail and full main and
our true wind angle is 140 deg. We are trying to sail fast whilst keeping as
much north in our track as possible because it looks as though this will put
us in better winds in 24-48 hours.
This morning Murka crossed behind us on a more southerly course with her
spinnaker up. We stayed abreast of each other until she disappeared over the
horizon to the south. That was good news for us. We know Murka from the
Hamble - she is a well sailed Swan 45. She is meant to be much faster than
us and, on handicap, has to be about 9 hours ahead of us at the finish to
beat us. Naturally we would much rather be ahead of her on the water!
Last night we had three visits from porpoises but could not identify the
species.
Yesterday was really windy after the start and when the call came to change
down from the spinnaker to the jibtop it was a touch late - we broached just
after that before the spinnaker was down. Fortunately to damage to crew or
equipment. Aliitle after that a sqall came in with 37 knots and we got 17
knots boatspeed - awesome.
At the moment life is very wet with a lot of spray coming over the boat so
we are all wearing oilskins. Some of our toilet rolls have got wet down
below which may cause a problem later.
Other than that, all is good. We are settled into the watch system which
gives 8 hours sleep after 20 hours (4 on, 4 off) and the boil in the bag
food has been well received. Our treat yeterday was dry wors sausage. yum
yum.
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