Valent - A week gone

A busy 24hrs sees Valent make some miles to the West. The fun all started on Wednesday night when we decided that prudence was the better part of valour and to action a sail change. The Bora was successfully returned to its bag and we reverted to white sails with poled out genoa. This plan served us well, though we did query it at times. During last night as the wind touched F5 we were very glad to be under white sails. Other activity included replacing the strop on the staysail that had parted, replacing a couple of shackles and adjusting some chafe points.

Futile attempts at catching fish were abandoned, primarily due to the amount of weed we were catching. Towards the end of the day we encountered a sailing vessel behaving erratically. After failing to elicit a response on VHF and given what we could observe we decided to intercept them and see if assistance was required. We did finally make contact and the vessel said they were ok but had no autopilot. The vessel was also surprised that they were not showing on AIS.

Yesterday’s gastronomic offerings included some Grassmere Gingerbread and a Sausage & Bean casserole which turned out perfectly from Mr D’s clever cooker. Lucy also got to have a catch up with her sister and mum thanks to the marvels of Starlink and WhatsApp. A night of champagne sailing followed with average speeds of 7kts. After the first week that felt good. However it now looks like we will have another few days of lighter winds.

Best Regards

Will
www.worldsuroyster.com