Just five hours after Green Dragon broke her forestay; our forestay cover was damaged during a headsail peel. The crew was able to cut loose part of the cover and we had to drop the foresail to do that. This cost us valuable time in this part of the leg.

Around noon we passed the auxiliary waypoint ‘South Rock’, around 185 miles west of Manila (Philippines) and now we are heading for the Philippine coast to do another tack. Winds have picked up some strength and we’re now in some 20 knots NNE’ly breeze for the next day or so.

At the mark, we had worked our position up to the fourth place. Not too bad for the moment. From there on, the waves started growing. We are aiming for the lower waves near the shore. Being aware of what is to come, we do not want to waste too much energy here.

Early in the evening, we were already banging against two to three metre waves and had to ease the pressure a bit by changing to the J4 and one reef in the main. As a relative rooky, I have deep respect for the guys on deck who fix this.

Frits Koek - Navigator