I thought the Route du Rhum was downwind and so the qualifier

When i sailed OSTAR last year, singlehanded from Plymouth to Newport
against the seasonally prevailing winds, i thought i had paid my dues
when it comes to beating to windward, clearly not, i have now had the
wind on the nose for almost 36 hours and the bumping and crashing is
relentless, progress ok but far slower than i'd want it to be...

I'm about 40 miles west of bishop rock, 49 59N, 007 27W and am still shy
of having covered 300 miles.

I had winds of 15-18 kt true but with gusts well into the 20s, last
night i was sailing on UniCredit by bishop rock in zero visibility, 2
reefs and staysail and kept leaping into the air and crashing into
waves, there seemed to be no angle to the wind to prevent it other than
turning around and going home...

Anyhow, all good on board, no damage nor loss of morale, but i'll be
glad eventually to turn around and go downwind and stop bashing my
brains into mash.

As always, you can send me messages for free using the satellite linked
service at www.marconannini.com/sms

Thanks all that have written so far, it makes it far more pleasant.

Ciao

Marco.