After a good sailing day yesterday, it was back to frustration and motoring
for much of the night, waiting for the promised veer in wind. It finally
happened with a bang around 0430 and under a rain cloud, so Paul got wet
again. We had just taken in another reef as a precaution and wise it turned
out to be as the wind did veer but also increased to an unexpected 28 knots.
The morning has seen sun, rain and very changeable winds, from 12 knots to
32 knots and direction swings. This has kept us active sail changing every
few minutes, or so it seems. The seas are again confused and motion is now
uncomfortable, so the blog will be short. At least speed over the ground
is satisfactory and our distance to the waypoint off St Vincent is under 300
miles - 290 at 1430, so we expect to round it around the early afternoon of
Monday and if we get lucky, may be able to transit the Straits of Gibraltar
overnight Tuesday or early Wednesday.
No shipping visible but quite a lot of silly chatter in a foreign language
on VHF during last evening, although very quiet today. 1 flying fish spotted
this morning, the first since a few days before the Azores.
Northerly winds are predicted for the next 3 days, so in theory, we should
be making better time, even if in a bouncy manner!
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