A gap in adding to the blog I am afraid as typing is difficult in these roly-poly conditions. We gybed yesterday onto a port tack to go more south and hoping for a more easterly wind which has partly emerged. The wind today remains about 25-30 knots with big following seas. Last night luckily no major squalls and a marvelous starry night with shooting stars and a thin slither of the old moon rising just before dawn. We been hampered by not having a proper genoa to pole out to enable us to go more downwind and it is impossible to repair in these conditions- the thought of getting it down in these winds is enough! We are now sailing with the main with 2 reefs and a strong preventer attached managing to sail about 160 degrees. But not ideal and last night we were a bit overcautious putting 3 reefs in the main further reducind our speeds. Our little genoa is of little use at these wind angles. The promise of lighter winds and the chance to use our parasailor are looking more re
mote now. So we are pressing on with reasonable speeds of about 6.5 knots. Many of the boats are now arrriving but we are 560 miles from St Lucia and if we continue we should arrive at the weekend. We are amazed to have sailed over 2000 miles with 30 kntos of wind behind us nearly all the way! Crew remain well and cheerful and food miraculously appears from a rolling and tipping galley, a great tribute to the crew! We are hoping for another fish catch today. JS