!9^th July, the weather has calmed down and the gale is just a memory, wind  15 knots and perfect sailing all day on a beam reach, wind from the North. Now, 1900, it is swinging to a North Westerly and is now behind the beam, we only have 85 miles to go and the mood is one of mixed emotions, we are all looking forward to getting ashore, but sad that this quite epic adventure is drawing to a close. Still cool and quite a lot of cloud, unusual for July, hoping the weather on the Algarve is better and that we are just experiencing ocean weather. Expecting to reach Portimao tomorrow morning sometime.