It’s a glorious morning out here: grey, with all the shades of grey and all the blues. There’s a nice breeze, probably 20 knots, and a decent swell. We are currently somewhere between a close reach and a beam reach, which is an ideal point of sail, so we’re cruising along quite comfortably. I wish we could stay on this point of sail all the way down the Strait, but we’ll have to bear off and end up running downwind at some point. Let’s hope this wind holds out all day, and the current isn’t too nasty in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Well, that concludes the furthest I’ve ever sailed in a single day. It was quite a day. I am, to say the least, exhausted but satisfied. It was excellent wind and excellent conditions. It rained on and off, but in general the boat handled really well. I have certainly learned a lot about sailing Jura in different conditions on this circumnavigation. One thing I learned on this leg was that in certain conditions downwind she handles quite well under just the main, without the genoa. I often use the Genoa on its own, but seldom the main on its own because it moves the centre of effort too far back and means Jura develops too much weather helm (a tendency to turn into the wind). In the right downwind conditions, though, it actually works quite well, and it alleviates the genoa booming around as it collapses when the boat rolls and there isn’t enough wind to keep it full. The last little bit was quite exciting, coming through Race Rocks with probably 25 knots of gusting wind, then hitting some tide rips that were pretty dramatic and getting sort of spun around while being hit by a massive gust at the same time. There were a few moments where it was a little bit scary. Then, coming around across the entrance of Pedder Bay under full sail, I got hit by a huge gust and had to lose the genoa and come into the wind, we were just totally overpowered. It was also getting dark and raining at the same time. A very dramatic final hour. But I am now here next to the William Head prison, and looking very much forward to crawling into my bunk.