DIST SAILED: 1592 nm
DIST TO GO: 669 nm
The last 24 hours has been exciting to say the least. After relieving Jon and Henrik yesterday morning, Peter and Sebastian immedeately raised the gennaker. The wind was blowing at a moderate strength of 14 knots from starboard and CoCo was going fast. After flying the gennaker for almost ten hours, the winds were coming at us 20 knots. Jon and Henrik were once again on watch duty and had the gennaker taken down before raising the genoa. CoCo was still making great speed.
After Peter and Sebastian took over the winds were even stronger, touching 25 knots now and then. The situation was deemed safe as the we were going downwind. After nightfall, a rain shower like you have never even heard of before came pouring down. Sebastian swears to Krishna that he could see a fish swimming by in mid-air. That is how thick the rain was.
With the rain came more wind. The wind gauge was showing as much as 34 knots at times, which is near gale. Some relatively hectic and hard work was ensue on deck. Henrik was roused from deep sleep to join Peter and Sebastian. After some minutes of struggling, the main sail was reefed and the genoa was rolled in. The time was probably ten in the evening now.
Henrik, thoroughly soaked, went back to bed while Peter and Sebastian sailed until one in the morning. From there, Jon and Henrik took over again, and the rest of the night transgressed relatively uneventful.
As a result of the strong winds we were able to cover a distance of 190 nm the last day. A tremendous feat! Right now we are not moving quite as fast, but the captain is considering to book a table at a nice restaurant in Horta for saturday evening. We of course hope to see all of you there in Horta when we arrive, waving Norwegian flags.
Positive spirit!
S/Y CoCo