Day 5: Azores -> Lagos - Strong Wind

Blue Note
Marco M.
Sat 22 Jun 2013 13:35
Date: Saturday 21/06/13 - Time: 12:00 Blue Note Time - 11:00 UTC - 07:00 EDT
Position 37:03.05N 09:40.91W
COG 94T SOG 7.5 kt, Wind 0T 21.3 kt, Barometer 1010.4 decreasing
Temperatures: Air 16.4C, Sea 8.3C
Last 24h Sailed Distance: 168 NM
Last 24h Decrease Distance on rhumb line: 165 NM
Sailed distance since departure: 771 NM
Time since departure: 4d 23h 15m
Average Speed since departure: 6.46 kt
Intention: sail to Lagos
Distance to End on rhumb line: 49 NM
ETA: Saturday June 22 at 20:00
Detailed Track (50 is the maximum number of point, i.e. once the last point reaches 50, the last point always is 50): <http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0EIVGO9oiEYLjqAfRxhderm34cEEF9dMP>http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0EIVGO9oiEYLjqAfRxhderm34cEEF9dMP

During the night the wind increased to 25 to 30 kts and the sea raise to 2 to 3 meters.
We furled in completely the jib and sailed only with the mainsail, with two reef, and the staysail.
Our speed "decreased" to about 6.7 kts but there was less heeling and less stress on the rigging.
This morning the wind decreased, but not yet the sea, to about 22 kts and we took 3/4 of the jib out and we are now sailing at about 7.4 kts giving us an ETA for Lagos around 20:00.

According to the grib file, once we will pass Punta de Sagres we will be in the shadow of land and the wind should decrease to about 10 kts.