After a beautiful sunny day with champagne sailing again, this evening has turned grey and threatening! Having said that there is nothing too much in the forecast, it is just cloudy and wind is up a bit.

We dropped the spinnaker at just after 16.00 as the wind was rising. Robert had been helming for a while and he felt that the pressure was just getting too much and it was time to drop it. It was a good call by him (along with several today, including putting a reef in about an hour ago) and we managed another excellent drop with Robert snuffing the spinnaker from the foredeck while I ease sheets and guys. Bliss gybed off to a more northerly course about 14.00 and we have lost her now, and we gybed at 18.00 as the wind went more WSW – effectively enabling us to stick to the rhumb line which feels the right thing to do for now. Some in this race think going north of the Scillies pays, but I am not convinced yet. We will have to see how things pan out over the next 48 hours I think. At the moment it looks like westerlies will be with us all along to the finish.

To keep power up we have replaced the yankee with the genoa, which is beginning to look a bit ragged, but is of course that much bigger (140% vs 110%). In the last hour we have been wondering whether that was the right decision as the wind touched 25kt gusts, but then the wind eases again to only 15kts! It is quite frustrating sailing and there is a big and rather confused quartering sea as well. Bottom line though – we are managing about 6kts VMG or more and have more chance of rest if we are not on our ear every 20 minutes!

No shipping and no yachts about to should be a quiet night especially if the seas ease a bit.

Thanks for the messages from home – it is nice to hear the occasional updates from terra firma. I will download more weather tomorrow morning and try to figure out whether we need a clever plan. I think we have slipped back a bit, but all is well on board and the boat is comfortable. We have pushed when we needed to and been conservative when we felt it prudent. I am happy with that!

Love to all!

Tim and Robert