Today we have run our spinnaker "Big Blue" for the entire day and will run it through the night. The winds are light and variable at 11-15kn. They say these are the normal tradewinds for this time of year.

Early yesterday evening, our previously discussed Facnor furler, gave up the ghost. The ratcheting mechanism on the bottom furler became jammed making it impossible to unfurl the sail. Thank goodness as the last time it was impossible to "Furl", meaning bringing the Code 0 down by hand. Of course this meant a complete dismantling of the Facnor furler to remove the ratchet stop. I must say the construction is really nice, but the ratchet really has been problematic and in American English it sucks.

Now we are in Day 10 and really not as far as hoped. We spent about 45 hours motoring in the horrible first 7 days trying to run down to the trades from the Canaries. We have several boats 200+ miles in front of us who must have made a much bigger investment in engine hours as no one could have made such distance to the west against the southwesterlies of the first seven days.

So far two dorado in the bag, eaten and gone. Trolling lines are still out.

Enough for now.

Wayne S/V Libelula Bon Vent!