Position: 43:01:00N 23:50:40W

Another easy day today.  We had a fast night, nothing scary, but Nutmeg was in her stride and creaming along under full main & jib.  It was very cold and very damp – I’m in 2 fleeces and a jacket.  The wind eased at dawn and gradually the damp air has been replaced by drier stuff.  I did get down to shorts & T-shirt for a time today!  The wind has stayed constant in the SSW at around 15 kts, which is nice.

It’s funny, but there has been absolutely no wildlife of any kind today – strange after seeing so much over the past couple of days.  There aren’t even any birds!  We are very much on our own right now.

I have just cooked a curry which went down well, and I’ve got the first watch, from 1700-2100.  The sun has just set and it’s quite a nice sunset with pinks and blues.  Yesterday it was grey and dull so it is good to see some colour.  I can see the tiniest sliver of moon from where I’m sitting at the chart table.  Nutmeg is creaking away as the waves roll under her.

Then its three hours on three hours off until 0900 and then four hours on, four off, so the whole system takes 48hrs to repeat.  It seems to work well and I am getting a lot more quality sleep than I did on the Transat.  I suppose I am not having to worry as David is quite capable of being left to sort the boat out on his own.

For amusement, I’ve been watching our progress in terms of latitude against the European coast.  We started out from the Azores at about the same latitude as Cascais, and we’ve been slowly making our way up the Portuguese Atlantic coast, albeit 650 miles offshore.  As I write, we’re about level with Camarinas.  We’ve got about 800 miles to get to the Western Approaches and the start of the Channel, but about 1000 to get to the Solent.  So I suppose we are in the middle of nowhere right now – 400 miles from the Azores, which is the nearest land.

That’s all for now.