FLASH - Mother Nature challenges NYC!

Having seen the NYC 4th July fireworks last weekend, last night at dusk we were treated to the most amazing lightening display courtesy of mother nature! Over a period of some 2 hours we saw flashes, forks - vertical, horizontal and "curly wurly" (named in honour of Collette's fondness for retro sweets!) - some so bright they were literally blinding for a second or two.Quite àwe inspiring. Also a little scary.

During OSTAR someone sent Barry a message saying "Life's not about sitting inside waiting for the storm to pass, it's about going outside and dancing in the rain". What a great phrase I think!

And somewhat inspired by this, we eagerly awaited the downpour of rain that must surely accompany the electrical storm and its thick black clouds... we couldn't wait to feel freshwater on our skin and most importantly wash the infernal salt out of our hair. Andy had all his shower gear ready to go! Sadly however, the rain did not materialise ... so we're still salty sea dogs today.

Meanwhile, with this magnificent electrical storm going on ahead, we had fabulous phosphoresence in the water, and a stunning night sky in the clear patch of sky directly overhead ... such a feast of magnificence for us to look at, it was difficult to choose from moment to moment where to cast your gaze! (I have now realised that I will be an insufferable bore after this trip with my stories of "when I was in the middle of the Atlantic we saw ... etc....! I'll do my best to keep it to a minimum!)

Having made slow and painstaking progress through the 60s, we're now flying through the 50s. Position is 38 23.41N 54 53.6W, with 1229 miles to go to our waypoint just south of Faial in the Azores.

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We have strong wind (26 knots) on the beam, 3 reefs in the mainsail and are making about 8 knots. The sea state is quite lumpy, so it's reasonably tough going and extremely wet! Thankfully the water is still very warm (29 degrees) so when you get lashed by spray it's not *so* bad ... in cooler home waters it would be a completely different story. We were hoping that the wind would veer further and come behind us which would be a lot more comfortable, but the forecast doesn't look like that will happen in the next few days.

Thanks for all your emails! I have responded to many (please check your junk folder as they seem to be ending up in there sometimes) and I know I owe a few people responses which I will get to as soon as I can.