July 16th 1600GMT

46 17N 017 58W

Last night saw us motoring from around midnight until 7am when we started sailing again under full sail and that is still the situation now. In the night Tim and Owen had 2 whales come up close tothe boat and we also saw quite a few dolphins and other whales blowing further away. We are making 5 + knots and have 491 n miles to go to Kinsale. Today Fi baked bread and brownies and it was a lucky coincidence as a little later we saw a sail ahead and when we caught up to it it was a single hander named Mark who we had met when we moored alongside him in Horta. We chatted on the radio and then Chris steered us close enough for Fi to throw him a bag with a warm loaf and a few brownies – his smile was a picture in itself and after passing on weather info we sailed on past. Mark has a Moody 37 so will be a bit slower and anyway is heading for Plymouth so we dont know when our paths will cross again.

All well on board.