38:22N 36:23W

365 miles west of Horta, Azores

Saturday 11^th June 2011

Yippee, the tide has finally turned and we have a knot of current with us.  We have 20 – 25 knots of wind from behind so are zooming along at 7 knots making 8 knots over the ground.   We did 166 miles yesterday, a record for Stella.  I also checked the log and our maximum speed was apparently 10 knots!

Alan does the 9pm to 3am watch and normally he gets all the squalls but he had a lovely clear night with a bright moon.  I do the 3am to 9am watch and today it was my turn for squalls.  None of them were too scary and with a reefed main and poled out yankee we were fine. 

I (Mary) am getting much more confident at handling Stella on my own now and get quite excited when I tweak the sails and we go faster.  I wasn’t sure about doing this leg on our own but now, although I can’t wait to get to the Azores, I’m glad we have.  We have had some rough weather but sitting on deck last night in the sunshine was amazing.

It is now the afternoon and after a wet start it has turned out to be a lovely sunny day.  We have even seen dolphins fleetingly.  The current is now from the north so our speed over the ground has reduced but we are still averaging 6.5 knots.  Only 3 days to go

Mary & Alan

Position at 1930 UTC 11/6/11

38˚ 22N

36˚ 23W

Wind:                  245˚T/ 17 kts

COG / SOG:        090˚T / 6.5

365nm to Horta.