The Maiden Factor Blog

Day 24

24° 31.159N
65° 37.997W
COG 310°
Boat Speed 8.4 to 10.7 knots, bending on the wave
TWS about 14 knots
TWD about 85°

Clouds everywhere causing squalls, no wind and slamming sails. The shock loading is painful to everyone, I'm grinding my teeth away!

Slamming on 1 to 2m waves with no wind is not funny, we dropped the sails after trying the other gybe and that was worse. Motoring, rolling, we went after securing the sails, we went straight to 2 people on watch with as many people sleeping as possible. We cannot motor all the way to Miami and the forecast is getting lighter with the high pressure system closing down on us. A smart balance between motoring and hoping that when the wind does come in we have a good angle to steer our course to the Bahamas - not New York or pointing to our mates Junella and Alesea in Antigua!

Dropping all the sails is the easy part - twice last night we winched them up first with April, Lucy and Heather they stormed it up by themselves but again the wind failed after 2 hour's of sailing at 10 knots we were motoring again and this time I got some good sleep too. Everyone had a really tough wake up, nothing like grinding up sails to get the blood flowing and the heart pumping! This time it was Ami driving, Amalia, Erica, Lucy AGAIN and myself. Followed by the A2.

We have had a brilliant wind shift that has us only 10° off course and going 9 knots on average. Fantastic! Because the wind is so unstable we have not had time really to prepare the usual glamour Maiden meals. Amalia is onto that on her off watch to try and keep the energy levels high as the next 586nm to the Bahamas is going to be earned!