July 23rd, 06:45 pst

Richard taps his foot 7 times on deck. Just an hour of sleep in the last 24 hours… Time to jibe, we’re on a massive lift. We now jibe Melges 24 style. A bit daring, we just send it. Slowly at first, letting that clue pass around the forestay while Richard eases. The main is already pinned in the middle. As soon as the clue of the kite passes the forestay, I accelerate the turn (I drive through the jibes while Richard works the kite sheet), Richard gets the new sheet trimmed while I let the mainsheet run as soon as the boom crosses. We pull off a perfect jibe in the dark in 17 knots and that really makes us happy. Time to crunch weather and report our position. Surprise: although we had a wild night, we actually seem to have done alright. Maybe that’s the 25+ knot squalls that we rode for hours. Nice one, we’re on similar longitudes as the top pack, but to the right with quite a bit of leverage as the wind gradually shifts right. And maybe an opportunity to sleep. First we must check the keel and rudders.

Weather crunching after a wild night