The quiet before the storm

I enjoyed really nice conditions all day, i'm now about 20 miles from my
turning point where i'll swing UniCredit around and head home.

The forecast is for a tough trip home, there is a low to my west moving
east. The American forecast model and the French one disagree as to its
track for the next 48 hours. The Americas say it'll pass north of me,
the French claim this one to be one of their own and see it going to
Rochebonne where they are putting out a gale warning.

Whichever way you look at it, it means there is a storm brewing which
will bring me lots of wind. On my grib (the vectorial representation of
a wind forecast that can be superinposed in the form of arrows on your
navigation software) i see 25kt average winds by tomorrow same time but
this can bring gusts of up to 30-40% more, so chances are i'll see
anything up to 40kt of wind.

These conditions will be similar to the fourth leg of RBI, where Paul
and I took first place in Lowestoft after a wild ride down the North
Sea. Only difference is that we were two, we hand steered all the way as
we couldnt set the pilot anywhere safe enough to negotiate the waves at
high speed.

Now i guess i'll have to bear and grin and go with it. I'll have a play
with the autopilot as soon as i turn around and see if i can get it to
behave downwind, i know it's just down to settings... alternatively i'll
take the main down and run under staysail, in which case the autopilot
should cope just fine.

Currently I'm at 48 01N 011 52W with full mainsail, solent and about
12kt of true wind from 258 appro, COG 205 SOG 8.5kt

Ciao,

M