Wind consistent at around 20 knots most of the morning so stayed goose winged.  Started to die off a bit in the afternoon, so took the reef out of the main mid afternoon.  Had a sighting in the distance of a couple of pilot whales.

At around 10pm we had to gybe – not an easy move in the dark but the wind had gone round so had no choice.  At 1am in light winds but very agetee seas and very uncomfortable motion we had to gybe back – but this time we left the genoa rolled way and the pole stowed on deck in an attempt to reduce headsail slapping.  At 3am we had a big rain squall and the wind did a 90 degree shift so, in the pouring rain, Matt had to get out of bed to go and move the preventer.  Somehow in the process of bringing in the main, the rope on the main sheet traveller got tangled up in the main sheet block causing it to break apart.  So out came a bit of rope and a ‘Matt’ll-fix-it’ job!  The rain continued for the rest of the night so we never got much sleep.

This morning, with 20 miles to go, we are once again goose-winged doing around 7 knots – there’s still a lot of cloud about but not raining (at the moment!)

24 hour distance: 163 miles     Position:  S13:17:25 W162:42:24