Day 11

Todays report comes a little early as we need an updated grib to help us decide on the days course. Do we trundle on down the great circle route under our two big genoas , or hoist the main and the kite and sail high angles ? The former option will pay if the wind is 15 knots or more , and the latter will pay if we can get a nice predictable shift to lessen the distance sailed. It looks as if we have another 36 hours of light weather , possibly very light if we stray too far North so 24 hours on Port gybe with the spi up might just set us up with a nice angle for the windy last few days. At present the wind is about 13 knots from the East so my guess is its a marginal choice.

The last 24 hours have not been fast , but very very pleasant. The difference in comfort between 12 and 22 knots of wind is enormous ; we still roll a bit but its all very genteel and we can have the windows open so its cooler down below .We try and tread the fine line between keeping the average speed up and pushing the boat , and ourselves , too hard , and we must be getting something right as we are now 160 miles ahead of our fully crewed friends in the Bavaria 39 ,yet still feel nicely rested.

So we  hope you are all having a fun weekend , Festina is at 14 01 N 48 40 W with 635 miles to go to Barbados at 1300 GMT ( 1000 local time) Sunday 24th. All well.

2 Comments

  1. Hi. Glad it is going well, I got up to the dam in the Guardiana, bit shallow. Any boat problems feel free to ask you might remember I recondition steering systems.

    Regards

    Robin St Paddy V11- V12 Hamble river

  2. Hi Robin – steerring system OK at the moment ( touch wood!) Good to hear from you.

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