Well actually the moment the sun rose over the horizon it was still below the clouds, which have produced a spectacular lightening show from about midnight until 5am. Now the sun is so low still that it is shining straight though the companion way into my eyes as I try to type!

The sea is fairly calm – there is always a slop it seems – and I have put the fishing line out (thank you Alan Marsh for my rod – the owner needs some lessons though!!). It would be nice to get to Ponta Delgada with a fresh Tuna….!

The night was ok but hard work as the wind never rose as it had been expected to. Yesterday afternoon there were squalls (Bliss with Madelon Kuiper 5nm astern of us got caught by one) and patches of calm (while we 5nm ahead of Bliss were becalmed for an hour or so). But since then we have been slipping along ok, pointing as high as we can in order to weather the W end of San Miguel. We need the lift to come through later – but what is hard for us is hopefully a whole lot harder for everyone else who we think are generally further east than us (Bliss excepted).

Plastic in the ocean – you’ve heard the stories. Yesterday I checked the Watt And Sea and realised I should have done so a couple of days ago as we had a piece of clear plastic bag wrapped round the blades slowing them which meant it was not giving anything like the output it should. Anyway there is now one less bit of plastic in our oceans and one extra bit in our gash bag, and perhaps a turtle has had a lucky escape!

We hope to get to PD tomorrow – Bill reckons we will be in for Sunday Roast! His weather routing calcs have been amazing and have certainly helped.

Time to check the trim – wind has arrived again albeit light!

Tim and Bill