Well the rain or drizzle has stopped – but it is still very grey so I guess that ‘rain in Spain’ has not quite figured out where it should go yet….!

We dropped the spinnaker about 19.00 last evening (we are longitude 19.4 now so it only gets light about 7am BST and dark about 22.00) in about 21 knots and it proved a challenge! Half way down the snuffer started on its way back up as the sheet / guy filled and very nearly ripped the snuffer line out of my hands. We managed to tame the beast in the end and I was relieved when we had it safely stuffed in its sock and posted through the fwd hatch (er and yes it was wet with the rain all day and yes my bunk was damp briefly….!)

There is obviously quite a sea running so while we both have our sea legs, it may be a struggle walking on land in a few days all being well!

We worked very hard yesterday with the kite up a lot, but as the wind went lighter (we reckon we were right on the edge of the middle of the low) we hardened up to go and meet the breeze, which worked well as what was a sloppy and very confused sea with what looked like huge soup bowls of water. We are now safely the other side of the low with pressure having dropped in 5 hours from 1008 to 1002.   

Bill has worked so hard on weather routing. He spent his entire watch yesterday working through plans – manually looking at expected waypoints on our route (assuming 150nm daily run, 75nm every 12 hours) and then finding those points at the relevant time on the downloaded weather grib via Mailasail / Predictwind. Believe me, typing those words on a rolling boat is a lot easier than what Bill did! We have a route and expected points in the chart now, adjusted for accurately estimated average speeds at the relevant point of sailing. We have just checked it again with a new weather forecast and there is a potential hole but we are hoping we will find what we have started calling an “ice bridge” across those holes.

Apologies for randomness of thoughts today – we just set the staysail so that Andrillot II has every stitch of canvas set on a beautiful broad reach in 17 – 20 knots! Talking of stitches, the spinnaker is showing serious signs of wear and tear with the bottom foot seam has begun to slowly detach from the sail. Hopefully tape will suffice for now but we will hope to find a sailmaker to stitch a new one on in the Azores.  

Last night was very wet, but with the spray dodger up (yes – first time since Falmouth – in fact since Portland on the way to Falmouth!) and wash boards in it became very snug and dry down below. She is so comfortable down below and yet powering along at 7 to 7.5 kts. Whoever was on watch popped their head up every 20 minutes or so, and the SeaMe Radar enhancer was set to ping if anything big was about (it did – one ship passed about 10nm or so astern).

We found a little squid on deck this morning! (Pictures I have but can’t send – too complicated to compress etc for me) I had thought of emailing Florence to ask for a tip on how to cook it from a top chef in a Michelin starred restaurant in Paris! But then again, we have a boat to sail! It did look tasty but I am afraid I threw it back in the oggin!  

This morning we picked up Fidelitas AIS signal. We think she is an Elan 37 which are quite quick, so with any luck we are hanging on to a few boats.  

Bill finally having a rest – he works so hard and won’t stop and get that very badly needed kip. We both need to preserve energy and brain as we have a long way to go still.

That’s all for now – a bit long – apologies!

Tim and Bill.