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Swan Valhalla - Log 20 - Rolling in the deep



Guest blogger - Skipper Sam       
 
Miles are ticking down, 470 odd to go. Trades are fluctuating between 80 and 115 deg on the stern, keeping us going in a vaguely right direction 285/290 heading. Reefed main, poled out genoa, mizzen stowed is quite conservative for winds gusting 30 plus, and a choppy swell, perhaps 10/11ft coming in from the NE quarter, helping us to roll quite merrily. Life down below is a challenge just now, and sleep is difficult for some. Running 3 hourly watches, and hand steering continuously, the nights are longer in these Latitudes then are the days. The moon is now waxing, and so the very dark nights of earlier in the crossing are a thing of the past, and we can now even see the squalls coming. Barreling along at 8 or 9 knots in the mean time, doing 180nm DTW days.
 
Swan Valhalla is doing us proud and carries us across the seas like a trooper, but does require a daily fix of some kind or another. Engineer Haig is proving invaluable. For instance: jump-start the generator (twice), reinstate the mast/deck chocs, replace the Garmin fuse in the ships' bowels (twice), Chart table plotter lost antenna (not fixed), various hinges, light fittings, fridge door hinges, Fix genoa furler at mast top mid ocean to name a few sterling efforts. Still, most systems work, we have a functioning watermaker, and steaks from the freezer on day 16, so can't complain there.
 
Crew is sterling, and cabin fever has not been detected for the most part. Now getting in the curious place where we all want to get there as soon as possible, but will be sorry it will be over. Looks like Saturday morning provided nothing goes wrong in the next couple of days.

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