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Christine's Atlantic Circuit
Peter Lansdale
Fri 1 Jun 2018 10:02
49:44.7N 006:32.6W
 
I am writing this quickly as at the moment the engine is off and the sails are up and have been for 3 hrs now! This is a tremendous relief for all of us, one, it is quieter and less irritating, two we all like to sail rather than motor it is the raison d'etre if you like, and thirdly it means more of a buffer on fuel stocks should we need it closer to Plymouth. That would be the final ignomy to have made it all the way to the channel and then run out of wind and fuel more or less in sight of home...i think some bottom lips might have trembled in frustration!
 
so we are just south of the Isles of Scilly heading just north of east with the wind astern and both genoas poled out, a bit like an old square rigger. This is very comfortable, but soon we will have to turn to starboard which will involve swapping the sails over, and the spars they are sheeted to and all the guys which hold those spars in place, that is a lot of swapping, and hence me hanging around at the end of my watch to assist (well try to anyway!) Now i have a bone to pick with some of you, you have been mentioning nice weather in the UK whilst we were having drizzle mid Atlantic, and now what do we find as we near the south coast - grey overcast conditions and whilst it is not actually raining yet, you can see the weather screwing up its eyes as it tries very hard to do so! me thinks there might have been some tormenting of us! Maybe it was just revenge for all those gloating emails and phone calls we made from the Caribbean which i suppose is understandable!