Back to living in the washing machine

Samaritan
Tim Vaughan
Sat 22 Jun 2019 12:12
12.00 Saturday 22nd June

A cracking start to the day, bright blue sky, blue water and white wave crests. An uncomfortable ride though with a lively following sea. Back to living in a washing machine. The auto helm is coping well at the moment (just as well as I’m not helming all day!).

The latest weather shows a complicated pattern of low pressure coming across and it could be easy to end up in an area with little wind again. The westerly has already done it’s own thing and gone left which means I’m having to follow it round so I’m already 20 degrees left of where I wanted to head. This doesn’t show up in the latest forecast so doesn’t fill you with confidence. Also, it’s difficult to keep your speed up in these big seas. The next few days are going to continue to be tricky, I just hope I pick the right route.

Anyway enough of all that, what else can I tell you? - to be honest there’s not much to say.

I’m having a rest from the tunes, my ears are tuned in to boat noises to make sure everything is OK in these sea conditions so I don’t want any distractions.

My waterproofs have dried out and I’ve got an old, dry pair of dinghy boots on while my others recover. The best thing though is my waterproof socks, they’re keeping my feet nice and dry irrespective of leaky boots - Thanks David and Zoe, the hat’s great too.

There’s 760 miles to get to Falmouth and I think I did a 24hr run yesterday of 160 miles - a new record for Samaritan, but I’m not counting remember.....

Oh, and you know you’re having a good race when your new class flag is start to rip itself to shreds.....

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XX to all.