Yesterday, Friday, the wind settled into NE at 18 and the big lumps in the sea mellowed out to more gentle 1.5 meter swells. Over the past 12 hours the wind declined from the low 20's to 12 knots NNE. Doing 9 knots on average in ideal sailing conditions with temperature in the high 70's/low 80's. This is what sailing is all about! If only it was always this way. . .

We have made 635 miles straight line from Lanzarote in three days. We have 2096 miles to go straight (rhumb) line to Bermuda.

We are getting weather/wind predictions daily for the following 5 days. By sailing several degrees south of rhumb line we will be able to avoid sailing into the center of a high pressure system with no wind. We will be sailing more miles but will be able to optimize sailing speed for a quicker more comfortable passage.

Sally-Christine has laid in ample amounts of delicious meals. Veggie pizza two nights ago and a wonderful salad with Quiche and garlic bread last night. The photo shows an example of SC's gourmet cooking. She surprised Tim for breakfast with a flying fish that landed in the cockpit last night.

Tim has found things to repair. He is now jury rigging a pin to attach the hydraulic autopilot drive arm to the tiller. The SS pin sheared about a day out. We have two completely separate auto pilots so flipped a switch to the installed backup pilot with no problem. Turns out the pin had been cracked for a while and the first night of extra heavy duty pilot work completed the break. Exactly the reason we installed two pilots. Steering by hand all the time is doable but not much fun. In addition to the two installed pilots we are carrying a spare drive unit, just in case. . .The pin that failed was a custom made pin, not the fault of the pilot maker. By the way the Ray Marine pilots run the boat very well and have been excellent aside from a few installation issues.

We have been running our Whispergen DC generator. The autopilot, electronics, inverter to make 120 v, electric winches, and lights draw on the AGM battery bank. The Whispergen also makes hot water which the crew has taken advantage of with their first showers in a few days. And to the overall enjoyment of all. . .

Kent-Harris finished Audible book "Sea of Glory" and is into his second "the Human Factor". SC and Randy are reading Olaf Harken's recently published memoir "Fun Times in Boats, Blocks, & Business". A great read about the Harken boys antics before and during the building of Harken, the biggest sailboat block and hardware maker. Tim between finding things to fix is still trying to win his electronic game.

All during watches and while sailing in tradewind conditions.

Position at 1400Z: 26 21' N latitude, 24 55' W Longitude. RR