Saturday 6th September

Back at sea! I longed out this morning; to be on our way. Properly! With open sea all around, no distractions of land around. It is two hours left of my watch. I battle sleepiness; coffee and chocolate to counter it.. Only the radar echo of cargo ship "Jumbo" and some rain showers on starboards bow.

Seen "Jumbo's" lights out on starborard and indeed the dark rain clouds even though the clouds cover the moon and it is black all around. The wind is suddenly starting to blow from North West. However, just as the forecast. It is soon time to switch of engine and unfurl the genoa.

Set sails. Engine off. Only the sound of the waves. It is not particularly cold tonight. Passed almost through the center of the low which has little and variable wind. Now it is back up to 16 knots. Hitting nine knots of boat speed from time to time. Had to motor about 2.5 hours which meant batteries got a good charge. However, I regularly get "drive stop" on the autopilot as the wind is up to 25 knots at times.

When my watch is over, I can hit the sack for 6 hours until 7am next morning. This looks like an appealing prospect as I now need to hand steer every few minutes. Rain showers make the night pretty damp. I hope for some sunshine tomorrow!