Halfway across the Atlantic

So it’s been rather a while I know. I do have blogs but kinda forgot to load them whilst on land.

Day 7 of our Atlantic crossing and it’s been pretty mental and full on. First few days was rather benign coming out of NY, and then bam we were most definitely in the rock an rolling Atlantic!! Winds were consistently in mid teens but with a really mixed washing machine like sea state… so as usual a lot of us were looking rather green!! That passed soon enough (for me with a patch for 36 hours) lots of sail changes and our skipper had decided that we were going the slightly longer route to catch the Gulf Stream – unfortunately as you can see on the tracker, not quite panned out for us… so IYK is last again… reassuring that the usual leaders of the pack had decided on this route too though!!

It’s kind of hard to describe everything that’s been going on, the last 48 hours has seen us in solid mid to high 20’s, an gusts of up to 36 knots… of the watch of 7, only 3 of us have been helming it, which is physically challenging and exhausting. There’s a definite physical difference between men & women, so at times (every time we start to round up), I’m pretty much using to entire body to keep the helm over… it’s much easier during the day as you can see what the bow is doing, night time is a whole different ball game!!

Thankfully with Jamie & Johnny we’ve been having some great banter, and I’ve had the tunes playing non stop, when the boom dies Jamie an I are usually doing some form of karaoke (he shouldn’t ever give up the day job!)

The code 2 is up and we’ve hit a bit of a wind hole, I’m finally in my bunk after skipper managed to turf my bunk buddy out after a rather long time…  having done mother watch on my own today, I’ve finally fallen into bed and am looking forward to more than a snatches hour or so in various locations!! I must admit has felt a bit odd being stuck below and not helming today…personal best on the helm is 16.5 knots… pretty mental in a 70ft boat with our sails (our code 2 is over 130sq metres!). Also managed to wash my hair today – which given it had started to dreadlock wasn’t much fun…  feeling much better an very much looking forward to my 8 hours sleep.

Sorry blogs a bit rambly and I’ve been rubbish at blogging… I’d say I’ll be better but despite best intents, I probably won’t!! Unless we get stuck in more wind holes… Derry here we come!! Big hugs all x