Well….Last night was one to forget! It was very hot and the wind dropped off for some of the night resulting in some heavy rolling and the sails slatting noisily. The seas seemed very confused at times coming at the boat from all angles. The
net result was very little sleep for any of us which led to the night as a whole being long and frustrating. Having said that; we were treated to a dramatic light show from lighting strikes from cloud to cloud for much of the night, and particularly once the
moon had set it really was quite a spectacle.
Morning broke a bit cloudy but the wind has filled in and the boat’s motion has returned to normal. Breakfast today was a real spirit raiser as we had scrambled eggs on toast. The key to this being the word toast. James’s efforts yesterday neading,
proving, needing, and baking resulted in a perfect loaf of bread! He has definitely earned the tittle of ‘star baker’. Shortly after 1030 the clouds cleared and we are now again enjoying what the Cowes based weather man Chris Tibbs described as champagne
sailing. Tearing along at 8-9kts in a regular following sea and bright blue sky. I asked James if we could crack open a bottle of Bolly to celebrate, and to my astonishment found we had none aboard. What sort of boat is this?!
It is interesting to reflect that we all had a low point on day 5. The initial excitement and novelty of the trip has passed, but I think having all shared our woes of last night together over breakfast we are now all back in high spirits.
After downloading the latest forecast and routing on PredictWind our regular morning crew conference concluded that we have made the correct call in heading south to find the wind, and we expect to gybe onto starboard and head direct for Granada later
today, then it’s just a straight run to the finish…and we will see whose tactics have been the best. Fingers crossed.