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Hot Stuff - Day 21 - The super moon was out in force



Day 21 - The super moon was out in force & Hot Stuff was bathed in silvery moonlight as we ran before the wind. The change of watch at 3.00 am heralded a change in the weather with the wind freshening so that helming became hard work. A call to the Skipper & the full force of the squall hit hard- Elizabeth & Thalita took turns helming as the wind reached gale force while Oline and Sophie reduced sail. The rain lashed down making it hard to see & Elizabeth began to call out the waves as they towered behind us in the darkness. As dawn broke the Southerly Busters watch came on. Almost instantly another squall hit with others surrounding the boat. They tacked to avoid a w evil looking black squall but others were waiting &they ran the gauntlet until the BIG one arrived. Sophie helming through each squall whilst the main was up & Thalita taking over between,still with 28-32kts - it was an exhausting 16 hours. The wind shrieked across the decks& the rain battered, wave height building to over 4 meters and wind speed topping 40 knots. With no let up in sight we went into action mode. All crew in life jackets ready to assist on deck, the drogue ready t be deployed from the stern, Sophie & thalita brought the main down so we were running with a tiny scrap of jib. Hot Stuff performed beautifully - her deep keel digging in as she took the waves in her stride. As the squalls continued we rotated the crew. Below decks made lunch and cleared the bilges of sea water from the waves, washboards were in to keep as much of it out. A brief respite for 45 minutes meant a welcome cup of tea & cake with Thalita breakng into her 'emergency' chocolate stash, a brief glimpse of sunshine before the squalls hit again with one particularly nasty one producing a wind speed of 44 knots - nice helming Natalie! When not driving thro the squalls Sophie's voice resonated 'hold a steady helm' & 'hold on!' continuously - By 9.00pm the squalls began to ease& we returned to our watch system. The moon reappeared and the sky was lit by moonlight rainbows and shooting stars and we began to enjoy surfing the Atlantic swell safe in the knowledge that the weather was improving and that Hot Stuff's bow was now pointing to St Lucia...


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