Wednesday at sea
As expected the wind died at 1300 yesterday and we settled down for a 12 hr chug , but it was not to be . A little breath came out of the SE after only 4 hours and we dribbled along until midnight when the expected veer and increase had us up to speed once more. As a result we have not had to dig as deep into our fuel supplies as we had feared , and this might be very important towards the end of the trip. Its been a lovely sunny morning and the wind has gradually risen to 19 knots from the SW, so we have pulled in a couple of reefs to help the autopilot stay on course and our dinner stay on our plates. Judging by the sky the next low is approaching and I expect we will change down to a smaller jib for the night , but unless this afternoons gribs show up something new we are not expecting anything horrid.
The only fly in the ointment is the current , which is constantly against us. We would have to get further North to be sure of a favourable drift , but need some more weather info before we are confidant to do that. The moon rises after midnight now , and is a deep orange for a while before it gets up properly. We wondered if there is Saharan sand or perhaps volcanic dust in the air as one of our friends 250 miles south of us woke up after a rain storm to find his decks covered in mud!
So all well on the good ship Festina and at 1500 UT our position was 34 55N , 58 31 W with 1450 miles to go to Horta.