We have just over 500 miles to go as I write this, assuming we aim for Horta on Faial, our preferred landfall. The weather gods have been half decent to us and we are hurtling along in the general direction of the Azores, though we would miss them if we stay on this course. We are being headed south now, but not enough to tack yet, so we’ll just keep going till we have to do so – probably tomorrow.

The forecast is for much of the same for a bit, and then a shift to light but favourable winds on Saturday. There is a bit of nasty looking weather for next Tuesday, so we are working hard to get ourselves in beforehand.

One of the complications has been that we have a contrary current of around 0.5 to 1 knot, which is knocking off about 15-20 miles a day, and we can do nothing about it. Without this feature, we would have been a good 100 miles further east already. Best worry only about what we can do something about, I suppose…..

We moved the clocks forward again today, so are now only 1 hour behind the Azores and UTC/GMT, 2 hours behind BST. It gets a bit confusing for the watch keepers, but better that than having to adjust all the difference in one fell swoop. Lorraine got the benefit today of the reduced hour’s watch, but still thinks she is having sleep stolen!

We did spot a couple of whales – we think – today, showing fins in our wake about 300 metres behind us. No enough for a definitive identification, but we are bagging the sighting anyway!

Best of British,

Watergaw