Moonlight & sail changes

As expected - it was a sloppy night trying to find my way through the ridge of high pressure. For most of the night I was within sight of Nico and Giancarlo, but they found some breeze I could not get to in the early hours of the morning and sprinted off to the North. It was a beautiful night to be drifting, with a huge yellow moon and plenty of stars. But I had had enough by the time the sun rose and luckily, I got going again about 0800 in the morning and the transition through the high pressure was a lot quicker than expected. But be careful what you wish for as the weather out this side is complicated.

Medallia Tuesday 14th June early hours on the Vendée Arctique

I am currently speeding along with my biggest gennaker up and bright sunshine in the cockpit. I did a boat inspection crawling round all of the damp dark spaces in the boat looking for damage or leaks and then pulled the beanbag outside and had a 30 minute nap in the sun which felt really decadent. I am trying hard to think through my sail changes and that worked well yesterday when I kept the same small gennaker up all the way from the start to when the wind died for the high pressure. But I can't help myself it would seem as I then changed through my medium gennaker to my biggest one, and I will need to change that back down again soon. I don't mind the work but I know I lose time changing sails as the boat has to be sailing downwind to do the manoeuvre. Part of my objectives for this race is to understand how and when to make a compromise on not always having the perfect sail in the air. 

More soon

Pip x