A horrible night and morning. Its been wet with rain showers and now rain. I’ve had the pole up and down, out on the port side and starboard. The wind veered to the NW but is very light and with the swell which is supposed to be 3 and a half metres but maybe isn’t quite that big, we’re rolling around spilling the wind all the time. I tried motoring for a bit which was fine but with 11 knots of wind now we should be sailing OK but it’s a struggle to stop the sails flogging.
I even put the heating on for a bit for warmth and cheer.
I forgot to mention yesterday the LPG carrier we saw the previous day and then yesterday we saw a tanker, so it’s relatively busy. We had dolphins with us yesterday for half an hour or so in the afternoon which was great. One jumped over another whilst both out of the water which was fun.The wind yesterday was good we had 25  ish knots most of the time and with the wind mostly at about 130 degrees we ploughed a good furrow. We had a couple of squalls in the evening but with the wind where it was all was fine.
I Have a plan for when it’s raining and the autopilot is on and I’m worrying about the autopilot going to standby due to the rain. This  involves the remote and has given comfort but at night when it’s raining I struggle to read the remote and. need clean glasses  and a head torch but hopefully it’s an improvement if I can get my act together, so far it’s not been needed.
We have a squidlet on deck today, it’s only about an inch and a half long but the first one I’ve seen on deck. We have lots of flying fish but generally they’re so small they’re not worth bothering about.
150 miles run with 146 made and we’ve currently 240 miles to go.  I contacted the marina at Horta but they say they are currently full and in any case don’t take bookings, there is however an anchorage close to the marina  which may be a better option in any event.
Hunter, Pip’s friend,  has booked his flights and is due to arrive at 1800 on the 9th which should work well.
Hoping for a little more wind and a lot less rain!
Slainte
Jock Patrick and Yemaya.