Askari Sailing: Askari Report 1200 UTC 17th December 2016

Position 14 46 N 45 52 W
Course 280 degrees
Speed 7.7 knots
Wind East 25 knots
Distance in last 24 hours 181 miles

Wow 181 miles in 24 hours - that is the furthest Andrew and I have ever sailed in 24 hours and it's been mostly fabulous. Yesterday afternoon was amazing, regular seas and 25 knots of wind, without a cloud in the sky; we turned off the radar and just enjoyed the majestic ocean, reading and chatting about our plans for the Caribbean, whilst listening to Jimmy Buffet.

We called in with the other boats in the evening net and everyone had similar conditions and all were very cheerful. However, Milvina had damaged their main sail earlier so was running a bit slower under tri-sail - they were making contact with sail makers in Barbados so offered to assist with contacts too; this is such a great community.

Andrew had a great watch and I slept well for 4 hours, then I took over and we put the radar on for a quick scan and spotted a small squall but all looked good. We left the radar on and Andrew went to bed, the squall gradually got a bit bigger and was heading straight for us, at two miles away I could see a deep black line in the moonlight so I reefed right down. It was short- lived but winds got to 37 knots however Askari just sat straight and surfed along at 9 knots. After that we had the usual light winds for about 20 minutes and then all settled down again for about an hour before the 'magic porridge pot' of squalls arrived. This thing was huge and every time you thought the end was coming more pouches of wind and rain appeared as mean pink blobs on the radar. I had reefed down and turned the boat down wind; she was fine but the noise of the wind and foamy seas for about an hour and a half is still haunting me today - it probably wouldn't have been that bad in the daylight….. Andrew got up half way through and checked my set up, then we sat through the last of it together before I went to bed and left him with 3 metre seas and about 15 knots of wind - really not pleasant!

Sad news on the Kath front, last night she was driving us mad trying to get inside the boat but then she got really subdued and just sat with her head under her wing. She looked so sad and sick and we felt really bad for her, we tried giving her more water but this morning she went to a watery grave - poor Kath.

Today is another glorious day, however there are still some squalls in the distance. We managed to make contact with the OCC radio net in the Caribbean today - it's pretty impressive to reach yachts this far out so we are very happy with our radio installation.

The weather forecast is for 3 more days of these good winds, however the swell is due to get a bit ugly for 2 days which we are not looking forward to, but all we can think about now is cocktails at Christmas. We hope everyone is enjoying the run up to the festive season - it's funny to think of that all going on while we are out here just focussed on keeping us and the boat safe.

About 800 miles to Barbados……