37:55.28N 43:58.32W

Think I missed the blog yesterday but with good reason all yesterday and the previous night we were plagued by storms and squall as we passed between the trough between the two weather patterns.

Having looked the day before at the forecast it appeared that if we approached the Azores from the South then we would be liable to head winds and seas on our final couple of days approach and therefore after careful consideration we made the decision to head North which did mean we had to run the gauntlet between the weather systems, Ther was little sleep the night before last with constant sail adjustments and reefing, sudden winds came from nowhere in 5 mins to be 35-40 knots so our nerves were in tatters!

Today it all seemed worthwhile however as we have popped out into the edge of the Azores High Pressure system and enjoying constant 15-20 knot winds with fast sailing and looking around I can’t see any of the scarey clouds that we have had.

We have about 740 miles left to run so I reckon another three days heading North t0 39 degrees and then head back South again into Horta with hopefully favourable winds.

Today was shower day so we are now all shaven and scrubbed up ready for 6 o’clock G&Ts on deck watching the sun go down.

Big challenge of the day was the generator as last night it decided to stop working so we had to run the engine for a couple of hours to recharge the batteries. This afternoon I decided it was time to dive in and find out what the issue was. The error was an overheating exhaust manifold that resulting in the genny going into shut down mode. I guessed that this must be a cooling issue so on taking off the cover saw the fan belt was badly worn and slack so I thought this maybe the problem. It was difficult to access in the stern locked in quite big seas but I finally managed to get a replacement one on only to find it hadn’t fixed the problem. More head scratching and I have checked the sea water strainer which was dry so thought there may be an air lock to promed this with fresh water. I also decided to inspect the water pump impeller to find it was mangled and missing two of it’s blades so changed this. Put everything thing back together, crossed my fingers and fired her up. To my relief the temperature sensor on the manifold didn’t rise and all seems good again so power is restored.

Sailing up in the Azores High is exhilarating and we are making good time so estimate land fall in Horta Monday sometime and am looking forward to some shore time and to explore the islands.