I feel like I have got proper trade winds for the first time this morning, which seem to be a little more consistent than yesterday and have slowly moved more to the east which is allowing me to go a little faster. The forecasted winds are not supposed to be very strong all the way to the equator.
I have been stuck in a band of cloud in the last 24 hours with very variable winds from the north to the east around 22 knots. I had to tack over onto port when the breeze went to the north for a couple of hours. I hope I have a more consistent day. Not much I can do about the advance of Virbac, I hope to be able to get close to JP’s speeds in the next day or so but the pessimist in me says I will bleed till the equator. We will see, not much I can do apart from sail as fast as I can.
I got my batteries up to 100% yesterday for the first time since the Indian Ocean and filled up my water supply to the max. I celebrated with a shave just before I tacked, the first shave of the race.
