Last night was a little stormy. The barometer started dropping like a stone mid afternoon so we reefed down for a blow. We expected a near gale (force 7) and were prepared to run ahead of that using just our very small super strong staysail, but just before dark it looked as if we were in for a more severe blow and in favour of a quiet night decided to heave-to. Heaving-to is a method of stopping the boat using the sails that allows you to sit quite comfortably in rough weather. We ended up having some extended periods of severe gale (force 9) winds during the night which slowly eased early morning. Once the sea state had sorted itself out so that all the waves were going in the same direction we started sailing again about 9 am.. We have had a fair day's sailing since then but are now motor sailing, partly to charge the batteries and partly so that we can sail a better angle towards our destination.