Bolero - Day 11

Day 11

What a difference a night makes! The movement of the boat on starboard gybe with the boomed out Genoa is so much more comfortable both above and below decks. The boat is balanced and has trucked along at 7.5 knots. We had a couple of rain showers that qualified for oilskin jackets and slight increases in windspeed under the clouds associated with these showers. We all felt refreshed this morning…. It’s amazing how good you can feel after two two and a half hour sleeps!

We spoke with Falcon on the VHF this morning, we have tried to call them on previous days but either we could not hear them, or they could not hear us. They warned us of a squall that had passed south of them, but which had passed over Carinya, another ARC+ boat, and had given them a hard time. We changed course by 10 degrees to the north and fortunately the squall diminished and passed south of us. We did have quite a down pour though. Oilskins were called for again. The Cif was brought on deck and the cockpit given the quickest of licks and a promise before the rain stopped.

The drum roll distance at 11:00 Atlantic Adventure mid Atlantic time was 537 miles to the waypoint. 308 miles in 48 hours.

We gybed the mainsail for a short time to try to give us a better bearing for Grenada, but the wind changed so we gybed the main back. We made excellent progress during the afternoon cruising along on smooth waves at 9 knots….. so much so that North Star called to check our sail plan……. Nick confirmed that the spinnaker remained in its bag on deck and said we would let them know should it be deemed spinnaker flying conditions.

Gwyn made a delicious mushroom stroganoff followed by melon, apple and ginger salad.

We sat in the cockpit and watched the beautiful sunset and reflected on the fact that very soon we will be leaving our Bolero bubble and rejoining the real world.

Night watches began at 19:00.

Fair winds
Nick, Maz
Ian and Gwyn