Fast Sailing
MILANO BLANCO
James Blackburn
Sun 5 Jul 2009 14:11
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05 Jul 2009 noon 38:22.6N 55:02.8W
Paul:
A fantastic afternoon's sailing with exactly the
same weather as yesterday, we continue to chew up the miles to Horta. Early
evening the wind picked up a bit and the waves grew even more by 8pm we had been
averaging 7.8 knots since noon.
After dinner at about 9.30pm we started watching a
big grey front that was moving towards us. We donned wet weather gear and set
about reefing down the sails. It started with a wall of rain and then a full 30
knots gusting 35 of wind. We were running before it with a small goose
winged genoa poled out on the spinaker pole, 1 reef in the main and the Mizzen
and we found the boat incredibly stable hurtling along and keeping pace with the
waves at max speeds of 13 knots. This only lasted for 10 to 15 minutes and then
we were out the back of the system feeling refreshed and just a little bit
excited. Jamie our Skipper then turned in, leaving Carlos and I on watch.
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