Today we have had an eventful day one way or another. The good news is that we are over half way this afternoon and we have put the clocks back again another hour so we are 3 hrs behind uct/gmt.

We flew the gennaker all night and the wind that had been forecast arrived in the late evening so we sailed quite fast and continued with rising winds to 19K with us racing along at up to 9K with an average of 7.7K and a top speed of 11.7K. We were literally racing a fast catamaran that appeared to contest us and we celebrated half way (1012 miles to go) with bubbly and chocolate cake. Then whilst sailing broadside to the cat and the skipper having a pee I heard those rotten words said by the helmsman  with  dread in his voice ‘Oh sh*t!’

The bain of every yacht sailing downwind for days on end is chafe and this afternoon the gennaker halyard chafed right through depositing our biggest and most beautiful red and white sail into the drink to be towed along by the yacht still travelling at a fair lick.

So with dowsed sails and lifejackets donned we set about retrieving the sail with no damage done. It is now re-stowed on deck wet but none the worse for its adventure and ready to be hoisted again tomorrow. So some rest first and then up the mast tomorrow morning to re rig the halyard – shouldn’t take long and hopefully it will not be too windy nor the seas too rolling. Done it before last time, 6 years ago so we know what we are doing..

So all is well as we motor sail into the evening and prepare for supper and a steady night. Our latest eta prior to the gennaker incident was really encouraging as we had been making up for the slow days before. Now we are dependent on the repair to get us going

We are never the less on schedule to arrive on Sunday – a week’s time and have enough fuel left now so long as we rig the gennaker again in the morning. I am confident that we will succeed.

Supper time before long and good winds should continue tomorrow

Sun set and Simply Red playing seems appropriate

More tomorrow

All well

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