Amazingly I sleep quite well although I find it quite hard to wake up when Mike comes to get me and have to resort to the sofa and the alarm clock for the first hour of my watch.
We continue to make good progress. The wind stays pretty steady around 15 to 20 knots and we average around 7 knots with a bit of help from some current going with us for a change. There are constant squalls and some bring us stronger winds but Mike manages to dodge the worst ones.
We have a bit of a blip in the afternoon though. Mike had reefed in the genoa before he went for his afternoon sleep and when he came back up he lets more genoa out. Immediately Samantha flips out and we go off course. Investigating both rudder mechanisms from their respective engine hatches, Mike discovers that a connecting bolt in the starboard rudder has fallen out which much have happened when he let more genoa out and the pressures or forces changed. While he fixes it back in place I have to hand steer, something which I haven’t done for an absolute age in strong wind. I’m a nervous wreck at the end of the 5 minutes it takes to fix. God only knows how I would survive if the autohelm really broke. It brings home how much we rely on technology.
Listening to the evening SSB net, it would seem that Mike’s decision to stay well off the coast has paid off. We still have good wind while those who are nearer the coast have very little.
Friday means it’s curry night and Mike is the cook. We have a very good one and settle down to watch some TV for the evening.
Our position is: 04 deg 11 min S, 35 deg 29 min W
Distance so far: 22693 nautical miles
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