Well it's certainly true that no 2 days are the same on the ARC Europe Azores leg. In the last 24 hours, we have had 35 kt gusts with 4m seas and during the night, the wind shifting 180' and dropping to light airs. So we have been on our toes with very little sleep as Fizz corkscrews through the ever-increasing seas heading for the Azores. Today's weather forecast includes winds up to 40 kts (gale force 8) to the north of our track so we spent 4 hours dropping further south to try and avoid the worst of the winds.
There are a stream of fronts passing through over the next 5 days with winds averaging 25-30 kts from the SSW, so we should make good progress although it will be very rough. Given the lack of sleep and constant motion, we are certainly looking forward to tying up in Horta, hopefully on Sunday/Monday. Earlier today we saw more dolphins, hundreds of them, and a very large blue whale, the dolphins clearly enjoying the rough weather. The big tragedy of the day was the breadmaker which decided to launch itself from the gimballed cooker during a particularly vicious roll. So now we have plenty of packets of bread mix and no breadmaker. Chef Peter has drawn the line at offering to make the bread the old-fashioned way.
More to follow.
Chris
Fizz of Cowes