A huge thank you to everyone who has sent on good wishes either speaking to Alyson or through the website. I won’t be able to reply individually but I am grateful to every one of you.
Since coming back in I have taken advantage of the calm water here to finish off some of the jobs that weren’t quite done when we left last Monday. Read full log entry The first day though was a drying off day. I was lucky and the weather was fine and dry. I try to keep below decks as dry as possible but when there is a lot of rain and spray around and you are clambering in and out in wet oilskins or, especially, changing headsails it is impossible. Elsi has hank on headsails rather than roller reefing so if a headsail has to be changed the old sail has to come off and the new one brought up and hanked on. I never keep bagged sails on deck so the old sail comes below. If I am changing to a smaller sail it usually means the weather is getting worse so the sail comes below soaked in rain or salt spray which ends up in the bilges.
So the first day I had the sails hanging up to dry off along with sail bags, oilskins, wet socks (my new pair of rubber boots had split the first night out) and any other wet gear. I mopped out the bilges and generally got everything else back into place. I’ve also sorted through some lockers and got myself more familiar with what is where.
I’ve checked through the initial route again from the Channel out past the NW coast of Spain and down to the Canaries. I’ll be able to hang up the oilskins for a bit and break out the shorts, T shirt and shades!
The forecast is looking better for the first half of this coming week so hopefully I’ll get away again with a wind that will get me south and west from here. If I were lucky enough to get a fair wind for the first few days it would give me good headstart.
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