An uneventful night and more rain! By mid morning the winds picked up a bit, not quite hitting 30 knots, but the waves got bigger. I think Predict wind said they were 3.6m swells, but Rowan counted between the top and the bottom of the waves – he got to 6! Whatever, they felt enormous, and quite scary as we surfed down the waves, hitting a peak speed of 18.2 knots of speed over ground. For non yachties this is really, really fast! Luckily just as we thought we better take Baby Spice down, the wind calmed down and the swell was more manageable.
The camera does not capture the size of the waves, but the bouncing up and down may give you an idea. We decided to keep the new canoe inflated, we think we may need it for Niue, and we dont need the back seat with just the two of us.
A Boobie hitching a ride, and a very punctured radar deflector!
We had one slightly scary moment when Rowan had to get into the sail bag on the roof and secure the main halyard to the back of the boom to give the mast more support in counterbalancing the spinnaker. With the lurching caused by the big waves it was a tough job but thankfully it all went smoothly and he was securely clipped on at all times!
The rain finally stopped late afternoon and we had a lovely sunset, to welcome us to our next night shift. The waves and wind have died down a little and we are gently cruising along, all is good for now ……
Gorgeous sunset when the rain finally cleared off
Taken from inside
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