Wed 21st May

Cat-man-do
Wed 21 May 2008 19:50
It's now the15th day of this crossing and we are plodding ever so slowly onwards towards the Azores. We have managed to "solve" some of the issues on the boat and have full use of the main sail again, though the Genoa is still out of action. Not that either would have made a huge difference today though, the winds have died down and we were struggling to make much in the way of meaningful progress towards our first stop. So much so in fact that we've taken the decision to enlist some mechanical help in the form of the engines. A little of a brave decision as we still have 500 miles to the Azores and are uncertain as to how much fuel they would use to get us the whole distance. Looking at the latest Grib (weather) files it looks like we may have little or no wind for the rest of this leg. If you could all keep fingers, toes or whatever crossed or ask the Windy god to send some this way, it'd be appreciated!!
Little else to report, though the sun is finally shining today which makes everything seem so much brighter anyway. We have slipped quite well into a watch system of 4 hours each overnight which seems to work well. Though quite who's the hardest to wake up for their watch, Myself or Andrew would be very open to debate!
It's always nice to get E mails from people back home , so as always a big thanks to people that send them out. Special mention goes to someone quite unexpected who sent an E mail from their work a few days ago. It'll be my turn to buy a drink or two next time we're all out in Poulton.
Hope everyone is well and happy and the weather's finally starting to perk up at home. It seems a little strange to us that as we head towards our Summer, we head towards Europe and the weather is getting cooler the further we get from the Caribbean!!
Take care of yourselves and keep the E mails coming
Brian xx