Today Was Not a Record Breaking Day.

Today was not a record breaking day. We did only 200 miles in our first 24 hours. Winds generally under 10 knots and mostly right on the nose. Not optimal but pleasant sailing in the Bay of Biscay. Clear skies, high pressure, no rain, but a big swell so there is some serious breeze somewhere out to the west of us.

We are currently at: 45,44.34N , 6,35.84W which is about 220 miles due west of La Rochele France.

We tested different sails today and some keel positions. We are still complete novices at tuning this boat. Friday we have to decide on some of the designs for our race sails as they need to be produced and shipped to Spain before the start. We were commenting today on how little we know and yet we have to make these decisions that normally are the conclusion of months of testing and information. We haven’t even lined up side by side with another boat yet.

The wind is due to go around to the South West later tomorrow, Wednesday, and build to 25 knots. That should give us a nice ride up the English Channel and into Holland on Thursday. We can check a few of our spinnakers at that time and make so more fast miles. We realize now how good we had it in the 2000 miler going 20 knots all the time. 10 knots seems slow to us.

All these days out at sea are good for all of us. I just spent a bit of time steering in the dark. It takes practice to be efficient at steering in the dark. Not much moon now and there is a bit more darkness per 24 hours that day light.

More tomorrow.