We spent the day listening to other boats and their becalmed stories, I suspect they are really all charging along at breakneck speed, just trying to make us feel good that we are making consistent but slow progress. Tululah Ruby, which is one of the other ARC boats, right now is passing astern of us. She did not have an active AIS transducer and she crept up on us in the dark. AIS makes it easy to identify the other boats and also easier to "see" them in the night. A sailboat, even a big 49 footer like Tululah Ruby, has a very small radar signature and is often difficult to pick up on radar when the seas are rough.

The winds for us have been OK and we have been making 4-6 kts about 150 nm off the African coast heading to a point NW of Cape Verdes. As of now we have covered about 300 miles. We will turn west as soon as the winds are sure, which will be later in the week (we hope!) .

Life aboard is consistently busy. When not on watch or sleeping, there is plenty to keep us occupied. Henry and I fixed the Oreck vacuum cleaner today -- troubleshooting is always fun when you can solve the problem. We did and the vacuum works like a charmp. Henry is sketching a full-rigged ship in his iPad. Rick is reading and cooking, although he says he is not the cook -- galley manager, he prefers. This evening's dinner according to the label on it was something like Nana's noodle casserole -- Really it was Carolyn's special tuna noodle casserole that all three of us know and love!

Great day. Hope the winds come soon.