Since leaving the Cape Verde Islands on Saturday morning, we have had a real mixture of wind. For the first twenty four hours we really were hammered by the wind and waves, with spray flying off the boat as we made, firstly, a northwest heading and then north-northwest. Conditions were not conducive for cooking and our first nights meal was a cup of soup and a bread roll. Then the wind started to reduce and of course, when that happens, so did the swell. Our second nights meal was a huge pot of pasta with a tomato, garlic, onion and marrow sauce - the marrow was a large one we bought at the fresh produce market in Mindelo.

Today we had a bit of motor-sailing during the early hours of the morning until a breeze set in once again and we were able to roll out the genoa and sail for the remainder of the day. Dinner has been consumed with great gusto - crumbed sailfish fillets served with coleslaw. Well done to Josh and Dave for the preparation and cooking.

It is now after 9pm local time and we have a quarter moon in the western sky with lots of stars and a few puffs of cloud hanging about. The temperature is definitely getting less as we head further north towards the Azores Islands and night watches now include a jacket. Soon they will also include long pants! As I type this the breeze is slowly dropping and we will most likely have to utilise the "iron sail" to take us through the remainder of the night. Earlier this evening I downloaded the latest weather files from the US weather service and it looks like very light airs up ahead for a few days. To keep up with the changing weather patterns, I am currently doing weather downloads both each morning and evening, thereafter I overlay it on a digital chart on the laptop and we all have a good study of the latest update to try and determine which watches will have wind and who will be using the motor. The weather files have been quite accurate since leaving Cape Town.

As mentioned above, we have a moon in the western sky as I type this. It is busy waxing and thus we should have good visibility on our night watches for the next two weeks. This makes for pleasant night watches as there is nothing worse than not being able to tell where the horizon is. However, on the other hand, it makes it slightly more difficult to spot the lights of ships. Our "ship spotting" competition was halted 50 nautical miles before we reached the Cape Verde Islands and was re-started when 50 miles out again. Dave is leading the scoreboard with myself second and Mathys third. Josh has yet to spot his first ship!

Well, it had to happen - I just started the starboard engine to give us a bit of speed as we had dropped from just over 6 knots to 3 in the last hour. We need to keep moving as we are a bit behind our schedule and need to make up some of the lost time.

In about four days we should be able to start turning more to the east and slowly start curving towards the Straits of Gibraltar. Exactly where we stop next is still debatable - it will depend on our fuel and water situation. I had planned to stop in Cadiz, Spain, but if our fuel and water is fine, we most likely will continue towards Turkey. The weather in the Med also needs to be studied as we get closer as there can, and often is, opposing winds in the Straits which can be quite difficult to get through if the winds are too strong and heading us. More about that as we get closer.

Well, that should update you all as to what is happening aboard the good ship Moorings A5003. Regards from Josh, Mathys, Dave and myself, John.