Day 3 - Update from Foresight Natural Energy
Welcome on board Foresight Natural Energy. Just writing day 3 gave me a shock because the time has flown by in a flurry of physical sail changes, whirling wind changes and hastily stolen cat naps. Lines of squalls, seemingly charged with the energy of the crowds, flung icy hail, rain and gusts of 40 knots at us the first night. I spent all night changing between the small and medium jibs in order to ease the intense pressure and then hurry to power the boat up again after the cloud passed through, taking the wind with it.
The forecasted gale to help us round Cape Finisterre at the NW tip of Spain didn't appear and I was nearly bacalmed by a big cloud that sucked up all the wind around me. When I finally wriggled free and dove into the narrow zone between the Spanish coast and a motorway reserved for shipping, I passed close by a French crew delivering a new charter catamaran to the Caribbean. Their friendly wave and the creature comforts of their floating home gave me a second's doubt about the three months of solitary confinement that lies before me but then I surfed down a wave next to them, hit 20 knots of boatspeed and all doubts were erased in a flash of flying spray.
Which brings us to this morning. The golden rays of sun are fanning through the low clouds and the calming sea hisses as it runs past the back of the boat. The tonnes of water that have rushed over the boat since the start have bathed the decks, removing the last dirty footsteps and with them, the traces of others in this world. Now it's just me and my tired eyes and big smile all alone on the widening sea.
