18 February 2014

Last night the wind didn’t come up as much as Andrew thought it would; he had reefed the sails right down and laid in his bunk for a few hours,  but later thought he could have had more sail up.  In the South Atlantic waters he is sailing in, he feels it is better to be cautious.

Just as we were about to speak about the forecasts for the next few hours and days, Andrew trying to make notes of the wind speed and direction, the wind all of a sudden started to pick up.  The Sat. phone connection was very poor and kept fading in and out,  so we were in the midst of a frustrating non-conversation, me shouting louder and louder from 60° North, as if Andrew at almost 60° South could hear me more clearly, when all of a sudden the phone went down.

While we were disconnected Andrew had to alter the sails to cope with the increasing wind; we were able to speak again for a few minutes, enough time for me to pass on the forecasts, which Andrew was again trying to write down whilst coping with rapidly growing, lumpy seas.  Before we signed off, Andrew asked me to pass on his best regards to the registration Class S6 at Northfield Academy in Aberdeen, who have been following his progress since crossing the equator.