We made some really good mileage the last 24h – because of keeping our spinnaker flying, we managed 183nm.

Also for this night we kept it flying- at some point however we probably will have to take it down for inspection. Though Captain Mark has made sure there is Chafe-Protection on every important halyard or fall or line (and me having quite some fun making jokes about it) – we keep moving the halyard a wee bit every few hours to make sure it’s not wearing on the same spot too long.

Chafe is a real issue when sailing long distances. The constant wear of lines against whatever they’re rubbing on can fray them to breaking point in a short amount of time—and the reports of a few broken halyards and sails ending up in the water from other ARC+ boats are a good reminder to stay alert.

Other than that, we did a bit of homeschooling, enjoyed a nice lunch with home-baked ciabatta and Greek salad, and later had to get used to a rather messy sea. I have to admit, slowly moving up in the ranking helps with endurance.

By evening (pumpkin quiche for dinner), the sea was quite annoying, with crosswaves affecting some of our younger crew. But as the night went on it calmed down, and as I’m writing this the sea state is much more comfortable.

So all in all, a rather uneventful day—which usually means a very good day on a boat!

I have to say, this time we’ve settled into the offshore groove much more quickly than on the first leg. Maybe because we knew what was coming, maybe because the break in Mindelo was rather short… but somehow it feels as if we’ve been out at sea much longer than four days already (luckily in a good way… so far!).