13th to 14th March 2018
Crap weather for a 24-hour passage, really, but it was the only window we were going to get in the next 10 days, so after missing the last one we took it! We were sailing in very light winds most of the way, and into what winds there were for the majority of the trip. So, the engines got quite a workout even if the main was up and contributing something for all bar the last three hours. The jib remained furled – with winds this light and the tight weather-window sailing wider angles wouldn’t have worked for us.
We timed it well in one way, though – swell was low and the sea conditions improved through the trip, which has been great for Arthur’s confidence. On the first afternoon we had lots of learning conversations, which is always a good way to distract him, and after a good night’s sleep he was his normal cheerful self, bounding about the boat as though it wasn’t bouncing up and down at all. Theo, as usual, was cheerful and truculent in equal measure. Good stuff.