Friday September 17th
Position 52′ 29″N 002′ 13″ E
Course: 191′ T Speed: 11 Kts Days run: 174 miles
Wind: Direction 210′ T Speed 32 Kts
Weather: Rain
News
Thursday afternoon the wind abated to 12kts as the barometer rose to its high of 1027milibars. Timoneer was making 10-11 kts for most of the afternoon but by 21:00 the wind was straight ahead at 25kts. There were some long faces from the crew as the boat speed started to fall as we motor sailed into the building swell. By midnight we were down to 7kts and by today at 07:00 we bottomed out at 3.9 kts of boat speed and had to basically tack our way upwind to make any headway at all. I had hoped to get close to the Eastern shore of England to get some lee but the wind stayed more out of the south than predicted. So we just had to grin and bear it and be happy with 4-5kts for the rest of the day.
John