First night out of Gibraltar

Well, what an interesting day. Gilly's passage plan was spot on and timings perfect. We left La Linea at 9.00am and put up sails right away. Dilek in Symina followed us out on a murky morning with wind gradually picking up. By the time we got to Tarifa it was gusting 30 knots. We started with a reefed main but after a nasty crash gybe when the preventer broke we opted for a genoa, initially full but increasingly reefed as we moved westwards. I think we saw 40 knots just very brieflyplus the 7 knots behind us made for quite a sail!

Just west of Tarifa Dilek called to say she had problems with her autopilot. We couldn't decide whether to fight back up into the wind to see if she needed assistance or not. In the end we did turn, made no headway against the still freshening breeze and then heard her say she was continuing on. We snuck along the Spanish coast for some miles before diving across to the Moroccan coast. Unfortunately the wind is still strong now at 10.30pm and we are having to handsteer as the new Aries hinge still requires some mastering. Oh yes, and after giving it a good go Marcus has been sick again.

We haven't heard from Dilek now for a good few hours. This won't be much fun on her own. We are pushing on 270 southwest now before turning south in a couple of days.

Goodnight. All on Petronella

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