NDS Darwin - NDS Darwin Happy birthday on board

4th day on board, it feels like 2 weeks already.. but slowly days are passing by :). We had the first 2 days of nice sailing

On Tuesday the wind started to pick up we were surfing down the waves at 13/14 knots. The boat will shake and it would feel like it was going to break in half, but everything was under control. 

Yesterday night was a challenge, the shackle holding the genoa up broke so the whole sail collapsed and was on deck about to fly away, we fast got our life lines on and went to the bow (with some huge 3meter waves crushing on us) to bring the sail out of the water and inside the boat, so we could tie it down.. meanwhile the full main was still up so we had to be careful not to gybe with gusts of 30 knots. We finally made it everything secured.. we could breath we were safe and sound to keep on with the night, with tons of rain and gusts up to 25/30 knots we made it to this morning..

I've been counting down the days for my birthday for the last month, is the best day in the year November 24th yey. After of how it started (with all the genoa problem) I expected this morning to be sunshine and nice temperature as we are getting more and more south. But when I woke up for my 10 am watch it was pouring and the sky was literally black! Moreover we had to turn the engines on because the wind stopped but the waves are still crazy big! 
Fishing rods are out, hopefully we will catch something so we can have some fresh fish tonight...

Dad is baking a cake for me, so hopefully this afternoon I'll be able to blow my nineteen candles while skippering this beauty on the 2.000 miles to go! 



Out for now Lucia on NDS Darwin..