What a euphoric couple of days.
We had our spinnaker up and flew out of the English Channel, then it was on to some tactical decisions of whether to go north or south of the traffic separation scheme (TSS), we opted for south, and with that a long night ahead of sail changes and gybes to stay off the coast of the Channel Islands.
Sunrise brought with it some spectacular downwind sailing, sunshine and dolphins dancing along in our wake.
Sunset came along and changed the atmosphere into a much more ominous and dark evening, with thunder and lightning shows fit for a film on display. It was a different kind of testing overnight, as we sailed in and out of light wind patches and worked hard to keep the boat moving south. Now we are experiencing some challenging weather with high winds and life onboard at 40 degrees again.
We have had Our Isles and Oceans in sight for most of the race which has provided some good encouragement to sail fast. We haven't eaten pasta yet though, and I am a firm believer in ‘eat pasta - sail fasta’ as a mantra.
Food has however been yummy: tonight we had chilli with potato wedges. Crew are in good spirits, yesterday we celebrated Oggie (George)’s birthday with two cakes and some sendy sailing.
Big love to all our Big Blue Clipper Boat supporters following along.
Kind Regards,
Laura and Dan