All night long we had squall after squall blow by us. We were shortened down to a triple reef in each big sail with the full staysail in the middle. At daylight we did not even shake out one reef, as the wind just howled! No rain fell until 11:00 in the morning just as I pegged the last article of laundry onto the offshore clothesline strung on the aft deck. It was a very quick squall as far as water but the wind carried on. In mid afternoon we gave in and rolled the main completely away. Still hitting 10.2 knots of boat speed with just the staysail and the triple reefed Genoa! It was a fast fierce sailing day. I believe the British term is “ sporty”. Thr highlight of the day came at 17:10 when we could hear Someday and Footloose on the ssb radio over 400 miles away. The couldn’t hear us, but we could hear them.
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