Things are warming up. We stripped down to two layers yesterday and took off our boots for the first time in days. The current gods favored us with a favorable current to push us through the Alderney Race near Guernsey (which was better than Tuskar or Brest), and we are now past Cherbourg.

Kite and her happy crew spent another day of dieting blasting down the Celtic Sea to Land’s End and then further south to a mark off Brest.  Overnight and then around mid day the Celtic Sea gave us a proper welcome with up to 35-37kts and a confused sea that certainly wasn’t small.  The conditions were variable enough to let us practice reefing and unreefing and changing between the J1 and J2.  As Wednesday ends, we are blasting across “la manche” with the 0 up.  But it is feeling lonely and the J2 will soon join it as a stay sail.  

The next couple of days look a bit lighter which will give a bit of relief to our sore muscles and bruises, but might delay the steak and fries that have been on our minds.  

We had a busy night.  It was windy, mainly around 25.  We had the code 5 up which is a furling sail on a cable and the head came unlashed from the cable.  That means it doesn’t furl right. We did get it furled albeit poorly and then quickly down.  There was some good luck in that as it was over 25 at the time, and you can’t douse one of those like a spinnaker without a sock.  

The course changed to drop Fastnet and instead add a mark off Brest. The next leg is 200 nm upwind which is a lot simpler.

Wow. Last night we had a lot of lightning in and after the Solent.  As the storms passed, the wind did crazy things: 0-25 and directions from all quadrants.  We escaped without incident, but we are a bit tired, and it was busy.

This morning was fairly settled and, despite the engine only reluctantly starting, I got some sleep.  Hannes did too.  A bit after lunch the wind went to 30.  Yuk! We put in two reefs and set up the J2 on the lock ready to go.  I needed a snorkel mask on the bow.  Of course, then the wind went down to low 20s, J1 conditions. 

We have now lost one of the two reefs, but the wind just dropped to 13!  On top of that, a warship “Queen Elizabeth” just announced live fire exercises not too far from us.  It’s been quite a day.  We will wait a few minutes before shaking out the last reef. 

The new solar panels are working great and putting in a lot of charge. 

Stacking the gear is a nice work out and well deserved after the baguettes and French pastries. 

The first leg to the Solent is underway. These are home waters, relatively speaking, for Greg and Hannes. It should be interesting to see how the fleet handles the crossing and the Solent itself and whether any local knowledge pays off . . .

Sunday morning saw the procession out of the harbor and north through the canal to the start of the Normandy Channel Race. Here are a few photos:

From the race village and Caen earlier in the week: