Sunday continued totally windless in the big High below thw islands, but with a big swell and sea so we are rolling heavily. After days of headwinds, everything on deck is salty and stiff. Ropes and canvas are rigid. Wires are frosted white.
Managed some jobs on deck like tightening rigging, albeit with great difficulty due to boat's motion. Celebrated our totally windless respite with lunch in the cockpit and managed to have music all day. Also managed our first ever Sundown G&T, followed by skippers best curry, followed by a flat calm motoring night under a huge starry sky.
Monday morning early, and up comes a wind from aft which makes us very rolly in a queasy and noisy jib collapsing way. Skipper suffering painfully from Ibuprofen back...due to yesterday's deck work..
Wind develops rapidly during the afternoon and to an alarming level by tea-time. Jolly big waves and much moaning in the rigging. Our fault, we have entered the fast east-going airstream between a very low low just above the Azores and a very high high just below them. The barometer starts to fall rapidly from an astonishing 1038 and stayed falling all day and night down to 1016. It was clear that we were in for a bit of a blow so talk turned to storm sails. Eventually, the thought of battling with these on a wildly heaving deck made us go with a simple sail reduction to start with. Eventually, after a struggle, we got the main down altogther and wobbled along all night under a well furled genoa. The evening and night turned out to be very rough, very windy, very cold, very noisy, very wild, and very wet. Emergency sustenance was a huge tin of M.Carrefour's Ravioli, with just a bit of Carib spice. Monster waves all round. Ambient wind was 27 to 33 knots, with squalls to over 40 knots. Cabin washboards in place against uninvited wavy visitors. Working below a bit like being in a NASA centrifuge. Really nasty off-putting session.
Tuesday 22 showed some moderating, although still rolling in a big confused sea Managed to get the main up and fill ourselves with skipper's special spicy porridge and coffee. Sun is out at last and we're on course now for Horta, only 90 nm away, so may get there for tomorrow (Wednesday) lunch. Spoke to our Danish friends on Dania by radio and they are just 60 miles behind. Hopefully we can have mutual Azorean beer sampling sessions once alongside.
Position Tue 22 2040Z now 38n; 30w. just 90 odd miles sw of Horta.
Mike & Dave on RAPAREE
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