What a night. As is our usual routine now, we settled down for our evening meal, lovingly made by Stefano. This time a traditional pasta and vegetable soup, which consisted of pasta, carrots, lentils, chic peas and I’m sure numerous secret ingredients.

Our little stowaway is still with us and we are not sure if Arba is aware of its presence as it sleep away in the corner of our lounge near a speaker.

The wind remained southerly at a steady 5 to 8 kts and the sea was a flat as a pancake.

Massimo had the 2100 to midnight shift and so I retired to my bunk, whilst the overs cleared the meal and dishes.

At 2330 I was disturbed by a change of revs and a rougher movement of Aria. Quickly getting dressed in heavy weather gear, I went on deck to find Massimo deploying sails and reducing the engine revs. The wind and waves had picked up as predicted.

Aria, was over canvassed and so I suggested we role away 2/3rd of the genoa, leaving the main with 2 reefs. Once Aria had settled into her new configuration we were makingbetween 5 and 6 kts, with an angle of 45 degrees. The sea was rough with 1.5 mtr waves and we had 25kts of wind across our deck. This lasted one and a half hours, again as predicted, and then dropped back down to practically nothing. “Predict Wind”, which is the forecasting app that I am using, proved, on this occasion, to be 100% accurate.

Massimo and I stayed on deck, together with a shaken Arba, until 0200, when I retired to my bunk for a well deserved kip.

Relieving Massimo at 0500 the wind is southerly at 5 kts and the sea is like a mill pond.

0540, greeted by a rising Venus in the east, appearing. Red, then amber and finally white as it pokes through the distant cloud break. Then disappear again as clouds draw in. The end of the night also brought a sole dolphin, surfacing only once, but enough for me to catch a glimpse of it underwater life.

Now waiting for the dawn to see what this new day brings.