McQ: Hankies

..And then the wind built, and we put away a little more of our headsail hankerchief- not just any amount, you understand, but a carefully chosen and precisely measured headsail hankie was furled away, to leave a leprechaun sized hankie (thats a relatively small amount incase anyone thought otherwise!)and the wind stayed fairly constant for a bit at 28-30 knots true. The seas were building and even with our mere leprechaun sized hankie we were barrelling along at 7.5knots in the bright sunshine!! Then the first of a row of thick grey clouds catches us up from behind, so I put away some more headsail, leaving a tinkerbell sized hankerchief piece at the front, and the wind builds- 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 and stays there!! And we are still barrelling along and the sea is still building!!! (Almost) every time we go over a particularly big wave Ray loses his GPS data feed when we fall in the trough and he beeps frantically at us to let us know he doesn't have a clue which way he's supposed to be going!! Fortunately seconds later we get to the crest and he remembers his course and stops beeping!!! The biggest sustained gust I have seen in the last couple of hours is 39 knots true wind- which I think is the most wind I can remember seeing since leaving Oz!!! Boy am I glad we aren't beasting into this!!! And its very very cold!!
Lots of love
McQ
xxx

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