Princ Christian Sund to ? - Day 3 - 26/8/25

I need a pee just after 0100 and in any case haven't been able to sleep for some time. Bonny is careering along even more wildly than before so I decide it's time to put the third reef in the mainsail. It takes ages to tog up as usual. I do the deck work and George looks after the lines in the cockpit and eventually we get the job done. Then we put a few more rolls in the genoa and retire below and I take over the Watch. The boat's movement is now more comfortable.

A couple of hours into my Watch and the wind has increased further - probably now at 30 knots, glad we put the reef in when we did. The ride is now almost as wild as before.

0600 and we swap over again. The changes we make are minimal mind you. The person off Watch strips his outer togs off, climbs into the pilot berth, hoping as he does so that the boat doesn't take a violent roll and catapult him across the saloon before he's had a chance to secure himself in. The man on watch dons his togs, pokes his head outside the hatch,  but inside the storm canopy, marvels at the huge rollers lining up astern and then quickly returns, checks the chart plotter and the AIS and makes himself an on-Watch nest of his bedding on the aft saloon seat and snoozes in between hourly checks of the situation, all the time wondering why its so bloody cold! I'm now wearing 4 layers on my legs and often 6 on top and then I cover myself with bedding!

I just tried to take a photo of the pilot berth and on-Watch nest but the phone informed me that 'violent movements" may spoil the photograph!!

The gale and I assume, the waves have torn the lee cockpit dodger off its bottom cable tie fixings and it's flapping about dementedly but I can't face trying to secure it. 

We still have the wind on the starboard quarter and as we slide diagonally down each wave often at 8+ knots, the boat has a tendency to head up into the wind. Most of the time the Hydrovane pulls her back on track pretty quickly but every now and again the genoa that is polled out to starboard, backs and resets with a loud crack!

0950 - the sun's out!

1000 - no it's not!

And it didn't come back either!

George gets up at around 1130 and makes breakfast - granola, fruit and yogurt. It's remarkable how long fresh fruit lasts for in this climate. We still have some grapes left that we bought in St John's that are in edible condition. Mind you at around an estimated, 5°C I suppose it's not that surprising. It's a bit like living in a fridge! If I'm not typing on the phone I'm wearing gloves down below for god's sake! It wasn't this cold in Greenland!

And so it goes on. At the time of writing this sentence (1800), George is recording our position and estimates from the weather file that we'll have another 12 hours of this before we get respite for perhaps another 9 hours, as a ridge of high pressure passes over us to be followed by another depression. On the bright side at least we're making good speed - still 6-7 knots, if not in exactly the 'right' direction.

George cooks a most welcome supper of mince and boiled potatoes. That's thanks in part to the portable freezer box which is just about working, in that it gets cold but the thermostatic control has gone haywire. It thinks its always 30°C and so the compressor is working constantly when switched on. So we have it on during the day when we are getting some charge from the solar panels and turn it off at night. 

Another thing that's gone haywire is my blasted bladder. I'm having to pee every half an hour or so! I hope it's the effect of the cold rather than a major deterioration in its already fragile condition for which I am already taking meds.

I go off Watch as usual at 1000 but the boat is bouncing around so much it's difficult to get any sleep.

At midnight we have made 160 miles in a straight line which I am pretty sure is a record. Our distance from Lands End is 1193 which means we are 95 miles closer than we were 24 hours ago!