The last 24 hrs has been a case of the calm after the storm

I had the best sleep for a while and some sweet dreams as the challenge of the day before receded and I played catch up in my bunk. It really feels like we have nearly cracked it today with Flores just over the horizon. ( though no celebrating victory too soon!)

Quiet enough for some mid Atlantic swimming for the crew

Well Tony thought it was quiet enough

Until

He tried to swim back

Tony went off for a float

But he couldn’t catch up with the boat

He failed to swim back to the yacht

He thought that was his lot

(and in further  honour of Spike Milligan)

Across the pond Tony did glide

Said ‘this is  quite the cheapest way to ride’

His legs got wet, his tummy wetter

Then thought after all the yacht is better

Never seen a yacht motoring backwards across the Atlantic ocean before...

And no I didn’t think to leave him behind despite his accusations!

Less than 150 miles to go to Flores now so eta <24 hrs which means with little wind but enough fuel we should be anchored tomorrow morning. We are all looking forward to climbing ashore and striding out. It will be different to running on the spot on the aft deck. We should have 24 hrs on Flores before setting sail between three of the main group of islands and heading for St Miguel to arrive after a final hop of say 40 hours?

I say final- I mean final hop of this main leg of the crossing. After this 1800M long leg to the western most island in teh Azores  and 260M more to the eastern most we only have around 1200 back to Blighty- which seems a doddle right now though I am sure that leg will offer us some of its own challenges and delights with a new and full crew of 5 of us for that journey (so long as no one tries to ‘do a tony’ and swim in the wrong direction...

Pancakes for lunch and fresh bread awakes afternoon tea. Then we will create some fridge cooking tonight- just see what we have left that needs to be eaten- it will I suspect be a strange concoction but all is well