Position 15:50.26N 057:02.86W

 

Saied into last night with double reefed main and genoa furled away;  boat was quite comfortable, making speeds of 7 – 8 knots in 28 –32 knots of breeze, but the sea continued to be too disturbed, to allow the use of autopilot, so we remained double teamed on watch, alternating helm every 15 minutes.  It was a full moon, and very light, making helming less demanding than before.

 

During the night we remained in close proximity to “Allure”, a 14.4 m Fountaine Pajot catamaran entered in the multihulls division of the ARC.  We tried calling them at dawn just to pass the time of day, but had no response on channel 16, and lost AIS contact when we gybed away as the wind veered.

 

The habitual night time weather deterioration never happened, the weather actually improved, and soon after dawn we unfurled the genoa and have stuck with it since.  Win is currently 17 knots, less than forecast, but the multidirectional waves still catch us out occasionally.

 

Nadine has rediscovered Sudoku as a way of passing the time, while Andrej croons to the songs of Bonnie Tyler.  Doug is the avid book reader (never realised that Kindles had to be recharged that often), while Toby is the boat maintenance and shipshape expert.  James just does his best to keep out of the way!

 

Best news of the day is that our destination is only 240 Nm away.  At one stage we optimistically thought we might arrive in time for a drink tomorrow night – the software said it was possible;  we then realised that estimate came when we were at our fastest, and it was unrealistic to expect to spend the whole day surfing down waves at 12.5 kn – so early hours it looks like.