After the gale

16:30UTC 22/11/08 29'57N 071'33W

Well, the wind continued to blow hard until about midnight, and has gradually eased away since then so that now we have put away the mainsail, unrolled the twin jibs and are running very comfortable in 20-25kt of wind. We are pointed pretty much straight at the Virgin Islands, a mere 820 miles away.

Yan and I did two hours on, two off all night as we didn't think it was fair to ask Karla to look after the boat in those conditions on her first ocean sailing trip. As it happened, Ty Dewi looked after us, we were able to sleep well and the autopilot drove the boat all night, through everything. Amazing.

Now we are running the engine to charge the batteries and make some hot water, I can then wash yesterday's dishes and we can move on with life aboard. We should have two good days before the wind goes a bit lighter and so we'll see if Herb can route us to stay in a good sailing breeze. Yesterday we covered 137 miles in a straight line, which is not bad, but because we took a roundabout path to negotiate the cold front, we actually sailed nearly 170 miles, which is exceptional. Today, we're going in a straight line all day, hopefully! Warm weather here we come.

We have another crew member, at least for a short while. A little bird has found us, he has clearly been blown out to see and is lost, tired and scared. He's actually flown into the cabin and perched on a piece of driftwood we keep as a souvenir. I guess it's the nearest thing to a tree around here. I'm trying to tempt him with a little fresh water and bread but he's very timid. If we can tame him then he can stand a night watch tonight....

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