Onwards on the Magic Carpet

The wind has continued to blow between 8 and 15 knots from SSE, allowing us to head NNE on a fast and comfortable tack. Sailing towards England (a passage which is usually closehauled) with a following wind and sea is an unexpected treat - our very own milagro! In unison we chant our new mantra: 'LONG MAY IT LAST!'.

The nights are intensely dark. The sea bubbles. We are caught in a two dimensional blackness in which there is no horizon or sense of distance. Ghoulish shapes appear and disappear at random - waves breaking all around. 

Rain today - at long last the sails, soiled with the dusty memory of Africa, will be clean. Unlike the sails, my body refuses to yeild its memory of Africa which etched a delicious blaze of heat on my bones. No number of layers can make me warm now. All day and night, my skin is prickled with cold and my shoulders tense with chill. 

Impulse is giving us what we call 'the magic carpet treatment' - it feels like she is trundling along at about 5 knots when actually she is steadily cantering on at 9 or 10. It's like she's on rails and this despite the hollow crested waves distorting the water's surface. When the waves whipped up to a mighty height she amused herself by skating down them at great speed - 16.9 knots being her best performance. Much as Impy seemed to be enjoying herself I, the damp squid in the whole affair, felt decidedly nervous. Another reef went in.