July 16th, 2009

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Thursday 16 July

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

At 19.15 hrs UTC I am at 37.19 N 31.20 W with 147 miles to go, a 71 mile day. I woke up just in time, last night, to hear Herb’s forecast, at after 11 p.m. I immediately tacked from a ESE direction to the North. As he predicted I have slowly been lifted in a great big lazy arc towards Horta. And in the next hour or so I might be able to loosen the sheets some and pick up more speed. I have been sailing with the same combination, double reefed main and 90% jib, since early afternoon, yesterday. It looks like I may get to switch to the 140% genoa. Wind was mostly around 20 knots . Very nice sail, sunny, but it has become a lot cooler. Too cold to show my zero tan line off to the Boobies. They are amusing. Lots of them now while coming closer to their nesting places. They all have to check out that strange red plastic squid lure and then they follow the nylon line a ways up to the boat, shake their heads and sail away. Makes good pictures. To-morrow should be a 100 mile plus day, now that I can go straight for Horta, instead of tacking towards it. The the last 40 odd miles should put me in the harbor in mid morning on Saturday.