We continue to sail throughout the night but as morning comes the seas get even bigger. The cockpit is covered in salt water and sitting out there isn’t a particularly appealing idea. It continues to be grey and miserable although there is the occasional break in the clouds allowing a tiny piece of blue to peek through.
Mike alters course to rendezvous with Basia somewhere off the coat of French Guyana in order to transfer some fuel to them. Although they got some from Destiny, Eowyn and Tucanon yesterday, if the headwinds that the front of the fleet are experiencing continue, they will need more than that to battle through them – and so will we – so calculating how much we can spare is difficult.
The squalls continue in the afternoon and by the evening the wind has come round to the north rather than the north east which isn’t particularly helpful but could be worse. The seas are really confused though and large rolling waves hit us from all directions. Everything becomes difficult on the boat and the noise of the occasional one hitting underneath is horrendously loud and makes you jump. The whole boat is liberally littered with dead flying fish and fish scales from where they have flumped their way across the decks before giving up the ghost.
For the first time in days, at sunset we get a glimpse of the sun. Hopefully this means that the weather is changing. However the only change it makes this evening is for the worse. A squall full of rain arrives from nowhere and Mike has to dash out and pull in some genoa. He comes back in dripping with water and I have to towel him down before he drips it all through the boat.
Photo: Sunset and squall side by side
I go to bed at 9 pm as normal but fail to get to sleep. Lying there getting more and more frustrated doesn’t help. At around 11 pm I give up on the idea of sleep in our cabin and head for one of the stern cabins doesn’t turn out to be any better. Sigh,
Our position is: 02 deg 58 min N, 45 deg 56 min W
Distance so far: 23431 nautical miles
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