I did really feel quite positive yesterday because there was enough wind to keep Pip engaged, but now with barely more than a breath of air my hydrovane would like to hand back over to the autopilot...

And we all remember that Lilly has given up the ghost for some reason or another.

So right now I have opened up the Blue Water Runner so that it can pull us dead downwind, in order for us to make over 2knts of speed (now this is really painfully slow, but there is only 4knts of wind, so who am I to complain?) and the hydrovane is still engaged but doesnt do too much.

If the wind direction stays the same, I might even stay somewhat on course... (careful, I might jinx that too!)

Looking at the weather I downloaded earlier, there doesn't seem to be relief from this very, very, very light situation in the near future so I guess I'll just have to get on with excessive napping, reading, listening to podcasts and rediscovering my favourite songs of the past 4 years on Spotify!

Did I mention that it is impossibly hot yet?

According to my (possibly faulty) thermometer even the sea temperature is 34°C, and I got stuck more than once (... twice) in huge floating platforms of Sargasso Seaweed.

These big rafts of algae, apart from being annoying and reproducing quicker in warming water, -cheers rising sea temperatures, are also nurseries for fish.

When I sailed out of them I had a whole trail of fishies of all sizes folloing me frantically, I dont really know why but it was fascinating to see (anybody knows why they followed me??).

It was heartbreaking though to see lots of plastic bits, bottle caps and pieces of foil being caught in the algaes too, floating on the surface, so far away from land!

Other news:

I had a blind passanger overnight, that pretty much gave me a heart attack at 0500utc, in the pitch black dark night, a young black sea bird (I will find out the name later) briefly joined me for a couple of hours, pooped all over the place and complained loudly about this, that and the other, before setting off again later that morning.

Its crazy how loud these birds are and just how high I jumped when I heard its cackling!

I was fully prepared to go bird-mama and bond with my fellow seafarer, but no, Birdy decided to look down on me from my Solar panels and show me its fluffy backside every time I started to chat.

The youth of today hey, no manners ;)!

Let's see just how many more blogs I can squeeze into my last days at sea, now that there is so much more time than I anticipated haha!

After all, 160nm to go seems like an eternity and a day when you are barely moving!