Back to the washing machine

Samaritan
Tim Vaughan
Wed 26 Jun 2019 06:08
07:00 Wed 26th July

Happy 8th Birthday Lexie, Grandad send all his love XXXXXX

Yesterday saw the wind go fully round to being on the nose and signalled the start of what could be a hard slog to get back to Falmouth any time soon. With the angles I’m currently achieving (even with the smaller jib) I’m struggling to keep my VMG (velocity made good) to Falmouth much above 3kts. With 300 miles to go, that means.... well, you can work out the maths.

Currently I’ve got winds of 15 -20 kts and the sea state isn’t too bad. LIfe down below is a bit bouncy and all the usual noises are back but they don’t bother me now as I’m used to them. Wind direction aside, it was another lovely night, fantastic stars and loads of phosphorescence streaming from the boat. I just wish I could photograph it to show you!

There is a little more traffic around, have seen a couple of tankers and had an interesting chat with Michael on Goblin, a yacht also on passage from the Azores to Falmouth. He’s thinking of entering the next GGR. No AZAB boats though.

Morale on board is good, had the music back on yesterday - it’s back to playlists. Hopefully it won’t belong before I can pick up a radio signal. I’m eating well, probably too well, hopefully mitigated by the lack of alcohol and about to tuck into my last porridge pot. I’m getting a reasonable amount of kips, the autopilot is working well and the wind generator is working a lot harder than it was. Mind you so is the autopilot!

Looking forward to the next weather update as I need to decide whether to tack up the line or take a punt and go wide. We’ll see, that’s the fun of it!

Have a good day all xx