Friday 23 January – so pleased to get a little wind all day

As soon as it was light enough Rowan had our new smaller Parasail out the locker, the wind is now coming directly behind us. We got it up successfully, this sail is in a sock, always a bit of a challenge to get it untwisted after we haven’t had it up in ages. It went up no problem and we were soon cruising along smoothly, the wind speed hovered around 10 knots and we were doing around 6 knots boat speed which was perfect. Very comfortable with a big swell following behind us.

Loads of fishing boats along the way not showing up on radar and a few fads, otherwise a very relaxing sail. We were meant to get a few squalls but nothing materialised. The wind dropped in the afternoon but it had just enough oomf to keep the sail inflated and push us along at about 4 knots. Once again in the evening the wind picked up, but we were not taking any chances, we took the Parasail down and just had the jib out like last night which brings our speed down to between 3 and 4 knots. A safe speed if we hit a FAD. I did the first shift as usual and the skyline was lit up by all the fishing boats, luckily none were too close. It certainly makes it a far more intense watch looking out for the boats without the radar to rely on.