21 May
Everyone told us that we could expect tough conditions between Bermuda and the Azores. We met some of this expectation last night. A wind change of 220 degrees, rain and gusts over 35 knots. I can tell you it was tough, rough and wet out here, but so were we.
We have to learn to lean towards port side when walking around, after four days of winds in from starboard we now get it in from the other side. We all have to learn to find new sleeping positions in our cabins. It is far too bumpy to make any advance cooking onboard so we consume a lot of various salads and crisp bread with sardines and garlic (!Yum,yum).
We believe we are doing quite OK in the rally and are placed somewhere in the middle of the field, a place we are satisfied with. Another record was set by Aniara yesterday, during a short interval she was up in 12,6 knots (!!!). There are not many more records to set for us. We can assure you, regardless of our speedy trip, that we go with our sails safely reefed when the wind picks up. If we continue like this we will be in Horta, the Azores, in 11 days instead of the 14-15 days we calculated with.