We’re more than two days into the upwind push, and the ride continues to be bumpy and wet. We’re trying to keep the boat speed down so that we minimize our time spent airborne, so we’re under a double-reefed main and staysail – it’s a great sail plan as long as the true wind stays over 20 knots.
Early this morning, the wind began to swing ever so slowly toward the south. That allows us to now point the bow directly at Horta on the island of Faial in the Azores. We’re still over 400nm out, so exactly where we’re pointed isn’t that critical from a navigational perspective, but it makes a huge difference from the psychological perspective.
If the wind continues to turn more to the south, we’ll be able to continue to turn more downwind and put the waves behind the beam – we’re looking forward to it.
Day Ten
147nm (only 23 hours in this day – we again moved clocks forward an hour) 36 37.9N 37 15.4W
Wind SSE20-25 Waves 8-10’ w occasional larger set
