Day 9 – Noon 27^th May to Noon 28^th May

A promise is a promise. Gale or no gale.

1600 hours. 6 months ago at this time of day on 27^th November this cute young man got married to this gorgeous woman. We flew a face flannel from the spreaders in honour of their union on our first Atlantic crossing and promised to do it again on the return trip.

Some people keep their promises. Here’s Nick hoisting the Ian and Ria flannel. We’re still thinking of you guys.

We passed the half way point just before midnight. As you can see we’ve 900 miles to go but sailed 1045 miles to cover the first 900 as a result of looking for more wind and then running away when we found too much!

Last night around midnight there was a short break in the clouds and we were sailing towards a very bright full moon. Behind us there was a nasty rain squall fast approaching. Suddenly there was an all white rainbow stretching from horizon to horizon. There’s no sun at midnight so what do you call that? A moonbow? Never seen that before.

Meanwhile the weather continues to dominate all our discussions. The latest forecast shows 3 separate gales in our sailing areas and there’s a lot of deja vue as we’ve now been in gales for nearly 72 hours. All we do is eat sleep and go on watch. The only good news is that there’s supposed to be a break in the heavy weather in about 24 hours time. But we’re all well and staying remarkably cheerful.

Paul - Peejay