Distance covered in the past 24 hours 130 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 988 NM.
After the previous 24 hours record run I think we all felt a bit over-optimistic about our arrival date in the Azores. We should have known better! The wind subsequently died and overnight we crawled along with the sails flapping in winds of 9-11 knots making headway at the speed of 3 knots or less. Finally this morning we’ve abandoned the sails and turned on the engine. The forecast suggests that the winds will pick up a little this afternoon so I’m hopeful that we’ll be sailing again before too long.
On the plus side we have passed two great milestones. The first was to reach our halfway point at 1pm yesterday. That is half way along the rhumb line from Saint Martin to the Azores although, in practise we have done many more miles than required to reach halfway as our route has been so circuitous. The second, at 8.30 this morning, was to pass the point at which we have less than 1000 nautical miles left to run. Let’s hope that the remaining passage will be in a straighter line than the first section. Lastly we saw a beautiful moon last night.