Skyelark 2 - Monday - Day 8

Monday - Day 8
All of the crew seem to have got their sea-legs and getting comfortable with
the rolling motion of the yacht. We are all coping with the watch system (3
hours on 6 hours off 24/7) and helping each other with the various duties
required to keep all in clean, safe and good order.

For the last 2/3 days we have experienced the true strong tradewinds
carrying us West to St Lucia. Today was our our second consequative day of
over 200nm logged
Currently, we have winds of 20-25 knots gusting to 30 and white crested
waves of 2-3m height with higher swells from behind raising us up and
pushing us forward scaring the flying fish into action.

We have the headsail and mainsail goosewinged (both with two reefs) plus the
staysail on the same side as the main to provide a little more stability and
early warning indicator of a potential gybe situation. We also have a
preventor rigged to the mains to provide additional security. Although the
auto-pilot gets a lot of use we are taking turns to manually helm in these
conditions just in case the need arises. As and when required we will gybe
to alter our direction to suit our course and prevailing wind direction.

Last night we were on squall look out duty during our watches as they are
now becoming more likely. With the moon now waning to nothing the low level
of light it makes it difficult to make out the clouds and horizon in order
to identify a real squall. So if in doubt and every 15 mins we do a quick
scan of the radar to identify any potential locations and identify their
tracking.
Tomorrow we are likely to reach the notional half way point by distance
leaving aproximately 1450nm to go. We are making great boat speed and doing
quite well. Which is very satisfying but there is still a long ways to
go.............
Blog by Peter H