Yesterday afternoon continued on our way at a gentle 6-7 knots enjoying the lovely cloudless day. All sat up on deck (incuding Sue) to watch the sunset and hopefully catch the elusive green flash – to no avail! We carried on our way doing 8-9 knots towards our waypoint with the wind increasing gradually. It also started to swing to the northeast and slowly climbed to 30-35 knots. While still goosewinging we hit 16.7 knots, the sea also getting bigger!!
By midnight the wind had swung round so much that we were heading straight for Cartagena at such speed that we decided we had to gibe – all hands on deck! At the same time we put a reef in the main, and decided not to unfurl the headsail until things settled down– which they didn’t! We hit 16.2 knots on the reefed main alone while surfing down these big waves! We all got a good soaking, although some more than others (no names but the boy(SA) who thought the moon was a cruise ship careering towards us at great speed the previous evening is a clue!) ! Most of us were pleased we’d had a good feed of curry before all this excitement , however we won’t be wasting any more food on Scott as everything seems to go straight through! With all this wind and big seas it was altogether a pretty lively night and most of us were pleased to see the sunrise , soon after which the wind and seas calmed.
We’re now cruising at 10 knots in 20 knots of wind. We’ve covered 210 miles in the past 24hours -as the crow flies- we probably covered a lot more yo-yoing about!
Now 170 miles to go , ETA 10am tomorrow - nearly down to ships biscuits so better get there soon!