1 Aug, 1253 UTC. We are coming into a day or so of stormy weather. Winds are S over 20 but feel stronger. Genoa down, beam reach under 2nd reef main and staysail. Its a little wet, but since its from the south its not frigid!
We are forecast to see 35 knots sustained about 2 hrs and 25-30 for about 
24 hrs. Not terrible, but not pleasant. We are coping. Simone is below trying to make Minestrone. Why didn’t I have an Italian on board before?
Now we’re hitting 25 kts of wind. Also good, we’ve had light winds lately, so waves are not huge to start with. They’ll build fast, but nice to start small. Now they are just 1-2 m.
2 Aug 1130 UTC. OK, we kinda got our butts kicked. The storm was stronger and slower than expected. We sailed along as E as we could as wind picked up from S. Somewhere over 30 the autopilot couldn’t handle it and we started hand steering.
1535 UTC. Storm has stalled on us. Still getting our butts kicked. Ouch. Just got slammed by a big wave that threw every around the cabin and jammed the head door. I hope it didn’t damage bulkhead. We’ll probably heave to again soon. Nasty pc of work
1630 UTC. Hove-to again. Bugger! so our big impact, we dove or fell off a big wave, thru another one and water shot thru every orifice! Not a pretty picture. The impact was horrendous and it did some damage, but i don’t’ know what yet.
Trying to rest up. Too tired to cook, too hungry to sleep.
Lat 48.080227 Lon -12.13116