Last night started out with the most champagne sailing conditions I have ever experienced! Following seas, good winds and favourable current all lined up for the first time since the start of our Atlantic crossing. I sat in the helm enjoying a wonderful magic carpet ride at a constant 10kn of boat speed, eating up the miles to the finish line.
We had celebrated sailing over 200 nautical miles in 24 hours that evening, and if the conditions continued as they were, we would easily be finishing in daylight on 30 November.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end.
When I swapped shifts at 1am, the seas became confused and our boat speed reduced. Squalls formed and we commenced another night of squall dodging. So far remaining successful, whilst we still fly the parasailor at night. If a large squall approached it would be all hands on deck to bring it down quickly.
The full moon has definitely been helping with squall watch. The nights are basically like daylight out here. It's absolutely beautiful.
As day break came, the wind did not. It became a very slow, tedious day out at sea. We were constantly checking our ETA. Lennox (7) kept telling us to speed up. Put on the motor. Unfortunately, we were sailing at a similar speed to what our motor would do anyway, so we decided to keep sailing. Ever so slowly, losing sight of our 30 November finishing time.
We did two loads of washing today whilst the watermaker was supposed to fill our tanks. Only for us to realise hours later that it had not been filling up at all! So now we are left with half of one tank to get us through to Grenada. We've whipped out our back up drinking water, and should be able to get through with a quick shower before our arrival, so we don't have to stink out the arrival committee.