The weather changed on November 28th. There was a lot of cloud in the sky, sometimes quite grey. We could see rain and squalls and blacker clouds in the distance around us. Thankfully never over us. The wind got up into the higher teens, often gusting at 21/22 knots. The sea was quite disturbed. We are now getting swell from a gale off Madeira counteracting with our normal swell and current from Africa/The Trades. However, the swell was not as bad as had been forecast and boat motion, whilst more pronounced, was quite tolerable. Also, not as forecast by all Predict Wind models and the ARC Weather Router, the wind annoyingly swung back southwards and we were off course again. Throughout the day the wind swung from side to side and went up and down. We spent the day absolutely hurtling along, achieving 153.5 nm over 24 hours, averaging 6.4 knots - a record. We also ended up with fuller batteries than when we had started due to the shaft alternator churning away madly. And we had a couple of rolls in the twin headsails to try and calm her down a bit. This was as near as it gets to exhilarating sailing in an old Amel! Okay not always totally in control, but never even remotely worrying, let alone scary, and no boat breaking fears created, despite our oh so remote location. Life on board continued as normal.
Just before midnight it rained on us. After that the atmosphere felt a little clearer. As the night wore on the wind reduced to 15/17 knots. We shook out the reefs. Importantly, the wind also swung more eastwards, putting us back on course, then even enabling us to bear away a little too. The sea state calmed and the gentle rolling motion was once more installed. A glorious dawn followed, back to blue sky and fluffy white clouds. We are back in Heaven again.