According to LuckGrib from Annie we should be sailing until this evening.

According to Des we should have 10kts of southerly wind and be positioning ourselves for the compression zone between the Azores High and the low pressure system to the north.

As a further check I ran Predict Wind weather routing this morning and the ECMWF forecast had us motoring from 1100 which was exactly the case, with the same route to the Azores as LuckGrib.

All the gribs show a low pressure system developing between us and the Azores but with different routes through or around. This shows a high level of uncertainty from Tuesday onwards but ECMWF has the system further north and LuckGrib is also showing a route to the south of it. All the routes have us arriving early on 4th June.

Chilli garlic prawns and Mediterranean couscous for lunch cooked by Oliver. Motoring has proved to be a blessing in disguise as without the rocking Olly doesn’t feel so seasick in the galley. With no sail changes to worry about we can concentrate on the domestics ie eating, reading, sleeping, listening to music. We raised the Duogen before motoring and as feared had a long Portuguese Man of War tentacle attached to it. With the aid of the boat hook and thick gloves we managed to remove it before it could swing back and drape around us. Definitely no mid ocean swimming for us.

The 90t yacht Achenar has been slowly passing us today. The name reminds me of the French warship Captain Jack Aubrey chased into the Pacific and up to the Galapagos in Master and Commander that I think was called the Acheron.

Oliver persuaded his brother Will to let him bring Will’s drone. It is now being prepared for action. It is not a splash drone. I’ll take a picture for posterity Will.