After waving goodbye to the sailing out Volvo Race boats as they headed south, Guppy and I left Cape Town and Table Mountain behind us. We will be at sea for the coming time. We started with a nice wind and we are sailing on a close tack. Then the wind shifted and picked up and it is now blowing directly from ahead at 25 knots so we had to reef the sails and we are not heading on a perfect course with the waves constantly washing over – as I left Cape Town I already knew that the first 500 nautical miles would not be easy sailing. At some point the weather will improve but for now I just have to tough it out. Because of the ship traffic around here I did not sleep much and I feel the fatigue. I hope to catch up on some sleep today cat napping. So all is well onboard and I just need to fall back into my sea rhythm but I feel great and very soon I will be used to the waves washing over and having things all wet..

Laura