I must admit it is REALLY nice to write a post that has no news! We left Flores today at 0600 bound for the port of Horta on Faial. This is where we will refuel and re-provision for the final week or so of sailing to take us to Palma.

While sitting at the local pub last night we ran into a guy named Keith who was single handing from the Bermuda to England. He was originally part of the ARC Europe (eastbound Atlantic Rally for Cruisers). As you may know Clive and his brothers did the ARC westbound in fall of 2007 on One Two Many. We saw all the ARC boats in Bermuda and they left a day before we did to come to the Azores. Keith arrived in Flores just under 2 days after we arrived. So we had made up 3 days on him in our travels. He noted that the rest of the ARC boats were anywhere from 200 to 1400 miles away from Horta still! It makes me love this boat a little more to know that she has quite a good turn of speed under normal conditions and really can fly when the wind kicks up.

It is hard as a captain not to second-guess yourself at times. Especially after having just gone through back to back gales. Thoughts of - Did I choose the right course? or What could I have done to make the trip a little smoother? or Was it right to put the boat and crew into a potentially hazardous situation? Keith, who has been sailing far longer than I have and is truly self-sufficient out there, chose the exact same route we took. He noted that the rest of the ARC boats went the �other� way (south) and are still out there and are still looking at anywhere from a 1 to 3 day close reach or beat back up to Horta � Ouch!

I don�t claim to have any grand answer to the question Did I do the right thing?, but I take comfort in knowing some, far more experienced than I made the same choice. We will see how it really pans out over the next couple days as we perhaps get to talk to some of the other ARC boats in Horta, but I feel comfortable that we made a good decision to take a more direct route even if it was a bit rougher for a short time. As we make our way southeast to Horta the seas are still quite lumpy and the wind 20-30kts. We could still be out in this trying to make our way back up to this island instead of this very pleasant 10 hour run down�

Today Trivia: In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Simon Whitfield gave Canada their first gold medal of the games in this sport, which made it�s Olympic debut at the 2000 Games. (play the Jeapordy music here)