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Date: 06 Jul 2009 12:08:22
Title: 38 37N 014 35W Heading 109 degrees at 2.9 Kts
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Sailing: Hours of boredom interspersed with minutes of shear terror. We are about 240 miles due west of Lisbon and proceeding under all sail at the glacial pace of 2.1 Kts. We motor sailed all night. This morning at about 7:00 AM the wind picked and we were able to make about 5.5 KTS and turn off the engine for a while. The wind has dropped again and after we check our fuel levels etc. we may start the engine if the wind does not pick up. We only made about 90 miles yesterday

We are gradually cleaning out our food stores. Stuff that did not look particularly appetizing at the start of this passage is starting to look pretty good. Matt made us a cheese, rice, and tuna quiche for dinner. He claims it is an old family recipe, although I saw him consulting our one and only Betty Crocker,s Cook Book. After dinner I carved up our fresh Azore pineapple for desert. Saved half for the next big meal. We are down to our last bottle of Portuguese red. You can tell things are slow out here... ever visit someone who has been in the hospital for a while. The conversation always turns to what did you have for dinner? Well the egg salad... or is it about the weather? Seems like all there is to report on... but there is the wildlife. Saw another big pod of dolphins, little or no phosphorescence in the water now. Sea birds are still with us but there seems to be more of what I think is an albatross than anything else. We continue to troll lures but no bites.

I think yesterday's high point was calling Mary around midnight our time for her birthday. Chris and I ended up singing happy birthday into the sat phone which was recorded on Mary's cell answering machine. Technology! Chris has a birthday coming up tomorrow. I was hoping to be in port by then but it looks like we will still be at sea. We all took showers yesterday. What a treat. We haven't used up our first tank of fresh water yet so I thought we could splurge a little. Since the engine was running all day we had lots of hot water.

The cockpit looks like a library most of the time. Grisham, Ludlum, and Heikell are all hot authors out here. I think we have decided to make a stop in Gibraltar. A little English atmosphere will do us good. It will give Chris something else to climb.
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