Christmas day continued on to a gorgeous evening. We were making steady progress W then SW under a fantastic sunset and warm skies. We ended up motoring for a bit (charge, water making and lack of wind), but as the wind filled in, we turned W again, then NW.

As the night progressed it got bumpier until on Barry's watch (4-7am) we had 34knots of wind. There were plenty o squalls around, some of which hit us. The wind started to shift from SW through W, so we tacked and headed back S and SW towards the point where hopefully we'll see some tradewinds. However, we're not out of the woods yet - we're still dodging and getting hit by the occasional 35knot squall. Getting a bit tired of all this upwind stuff!

At the moment, there's not much else going on - everyone is trying to catch up on some sleep from last night and its still pretty lively. Not yet got the Sailing Rallies forecast, but the gribs suggest there's a hole in the wind ahead, again. *sigh*.

The good news is that we're seeing E/NE trade winds on the charts at last! From the emails flying around the fleet, we're all very glad of that. We really hope they appear! It maybe that we have to get quite a way south to see them early - or drift around for a while. Maybe we'll form a 16N club!