2300 miles down 300 to go 37:39N 34:42W

Kantara Atlantic Odyssey
Andy Hemens
Tue 29 May 2012 16:06
We now have less than 300 nautical miles to go and we hope to arrive in Horta midafternoon on Thursday. We are all looking forward to arriving and currently competing for the most desired shore based items are: a shower, clean dry clothes, and a full nights sleep. We might still be two days away but we have already looked up the opening times of the showers and discussed the merits of the different Laundry facilities available!
 
Sadly the best way to describe the past day or so is probably damp with moments of wet. Early morning sightings of dolphins have been replaced by early morning rain and the boat has gone from being hot to cool and damp (further increasing the desire for laundry- Ian's conversation revolves more and more around his damp shorts and "soggy bottom"). We sailed through the night making good progress of 6-7 knots in the right direction but the wind dropped this morning so we put the engine on at about 10am and we are now motoring at about 6 knots directly towards Horta. One thing that has improved though is the waves; the boat is more comfortable now that we are heading in the same direction as the waves rather than directly into them.
 
Also after a through cleaning this morning from Malcolm with multiple buckets of water we now have the shiniest, cleanest heads in the whole of the north Atlantic (I don't have much to base this on as we haven't actually seen any other yachts or asked them about the state of their heads but they are certainly a contender for the cleanest heads in the north Atlantic). Malcolm has been threatening restrictions on usage and regular inspections to maintain the splendor. The cleaning bug seems to have got Andy as well who cleaned out the cockpit including the winch handle holders on his watch out of boredom.
 
Claire