A rather frustrating 24 hours, after breaking our bowsprit ringlet for the down wind sail we are now unable to hoist any sails that would help accelerate our passage to the finish and we still have some miles left to cover.

We are therefore left with the traditional sail rig of mail sail and jib, the latter being very poor at performing downwind as all Hanse yachts are fitted with self tacking jib rails. The result is that often we just choose to sail with the main sail boomed out on a boom preventer. It’s a big sail and pretty effective but does limit the down wind sailing capacity as we can normally only steer about 20 degrees off the following wind to ensure that there is no  danger of the wind getting behind the sail and crashing it over the other side.

As darkness fell last night we had just finished chicken, leek and mushroom cooked to perfection by yours truly and we just discussing dessert options as the clouds that had been looming on our stern for a couple of hours burst overhead and released 20+ knot gusts and a deluge of rain, followed by dead calm. We manage to reef the sails in time before the winds hit and had expected this squall to pass quickly so shook out the reef and carried on but there was little on no wind and any wind there was just rotating 360 degrees around the boat causing absolute confusion.

We can use the radar to good effect to show up all the rainfall but this didn’t help as there seemed no way out we were effectively completely surrounded. Everyone was on deck for some hours as we managed our sail position and tried to carry on so little sleep was had by anyone. Eventually we were able to get under way and resume our watches only to be chased by a further squall which we tried to outrun to the North using the radar to help us. We were however eventually once again left becalmed so with frustration building I decided to resort to the motor to make some headway and try and leave these troublesome squalls behind. By 5 am I had managed an hours sleep and an hours motoring and clear of the squall zone we set sails again and fingers crossed since then have been sailing at 6 knots in the right direction and things are slowly getting back to normal.

As I tap away 930 miles left to go, the daily positions we receive through show some boats already finished albeit just the large fleet leaders and we are envious of these crews sipping their G&Ts in Rodney Bay whilst we negotiate our way through the last leg with more squall expected, why they always come at night I have no idea!

The latest forecast download shows strengthening winds towards St Lucia with 25 knot gusts so more fun and games and we will be reefing down tonight in anticipation but all in goos spirits 

Paul/Skip