More sleep please

Today we have finally had the rest we have been waiting for- from slamming upwind. Sailing upwind is not the most comfortable points of sail, you are constantly living your life on a 45 degree angle, and then slamming into a wave that causes you to lose balance or throw you somewhere else. Trying to get into your bunk is a huge task in its self and once you are in you feel you could fall out at any moment even though the adjustable bunk has you pinned to the side of the boat, going to the heads and cleaning your teeth are difficult, trying to get changed into your gear with one hand while the other keeps you steady all make life very hard below deck and on deck you have to stay clipped on and hold on. Yesterday afternoon I spent a few hours in the fore peak- where we keep our sails, trying to repair a tear in our Yankee 2 so it could be ready to fly by the evening, a few times I was thrown across into sails or bunks, and was close to giving up all together but eventually finished it in time with Stephen, who gave up his off watch to help!

The other day while we were changing from the Yankee 2 to the 3 (as the wind was increasing), our reef 2 and 3 lines snapped, these are found on the mainsail and reduce the size of it when the wind increases, very important lines at this stage! So we had to drop our mainsail completely and hoist our Trysail (one of our storm sails). While the mainsail was down Matt and I spent from 8pm until 5am repairing the damage on the sail that needed doing to reduce further potential damage, on the plus side we finished it and I got a lie in until the afternoon! 

So now the wind has eased off and everyone has had the chance to recover and re-organise their belongings,  I think the next few days will be interesting in terms of the fleets tactics and the leader board positions could be changing, hopefully we will be making the right moves and see our position creep up the leader board with only just over 1000 miles to go until the end of race 8A. We will also be able to get some downwind sailing in, meaning a flatter, faster boat- oh and more sleep!