Blonde Moment - blog 9

Monday 21 - Tuesday 22 may

Last night was Amazing in fact the last 24 hrs from Monday 1200 UTC to Tuesday 1200 UTC has been remarkable in may ways..
Firstly the sailing has been fantastic ...... down wind , 2-3 mseas and wins 20 - 30 kts make for some great surfing conditions and the moon illuminating the way ... brilliant! Blonde Moment broke her speed record to date with 14.5 kts and a 24 hr run of 230 miles. 203 miles in the right direction towards Horta.... a really good 24 hrs sailing .

However just before the SSB net @ 12:30 UTC it all started to go wrong.....
The wind began to ease and veer to the north meaning our course was not good - unless we wanted to go to the cape Verde islands!
And now it started to rain
To get back on course we had to change our sail plan from down wind to up wind sails , this took us both about 40 mins in pouring rain
To pay for the previous days fantastic sailing the weather gods moved the wind again requiring a further sail change and then finally we were left with zero wind and had to resort to the engine.....and still it was raining, grey and yuk.
From the heady sailing of the previous 24 hrs we were now motoring into lumpy seas ,with thick cloud and very heavy cold rain.

the mst depressig thing wthat all h yacht that had stayed south were still basking in sunshine in light winds and t shirt and shorts the dress code. We had base layers , thermals ,boots, wolly hats and full wet wather gear... I was now wondering if my decision to sail north for the wind was a bit rash.
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