The wind keeps merrilly fooling around… Last night it shifted to the North, which was great. So this meant that I just had to unrig the Genoa from the spinnaker pole. Normally this is no problem at all, but the pole was completely stuck to the sheet rope from all the tape I had wrapped around it – which was to prevent it from fraying through. With a knife I tried to cut off the tape while I was tossed all over the deck like a bouncing ball… In the end I managed to loosen the pole by using the winch. Then the wind turned to the West until I had to come about close which brought me on a course too far South! Back on course, Guppy is still sailing close to the wind at 6,5 knots [12 kilometres or 7,5 land miles an hour], and is now pretty much like a submarine… She just keeps shaking off the overflowing water and sailing forward… Also, I have found a leak right at the top of my wardrobe..! There are still 260 nautical miles to go to Tonga [482 kilometres or 299 land miles].

Laura