On Friday we had a very quiet night and the wind virtually died, by midnight we were motoring heading east. We woke to a beautiful sunny morning with a westerly breeze taking us gently along at 6kn. However, it never does last, one minute we are sailing along eating pancakes with parmesan, maple syrup and jam and the next all hell breaks loose with strong winds and rain. As we furled in the Genoa the strop on the tack of the sail snapped.  It took us quite a while to battle on foredeck bringing the sail down and into the cabin for repair. The inner forestay has come to good use during this trip and we are flying the staysail until the Genoa has been repaired.  We have the necessary equipment onboard to fix the sail (we think).

The second real disaster (and to the delight of some of the crew), my iPod with Bocelli, Flight of the Concorde and all the tango music has given up completely. I think that working on foredeck in 28kn of wind with the waves drowning us and the iPod in the pocked did not do it any good.

Dinner last night was created by Liz and Annya, a culinary experience of potato bake (more like potato mashed up), a dish made with mince that we found in the “On board cook book” - meals to cook at force 6 (25 kn of wind)  and a salad.

Today is Saturday and the day has just begun for us here in the middle of the Atlantic.  We are progressing well and are heading for the Azores.   The forecast looks promising but weather is very unpredictable and you never know what’s in store.

We are all well.

Liz