I take back what I said yesterday before about the 30 and 0. We had a beautiful day of sailing with 15 to 20 knots of wind from directly behind us. The problem with that wind direction is the main always wants to gybe. So we just took it down and flew the spinnaker alone. Wow what a great feeling! the boat was totally balanced and we could now sail as deep as we wanted. I think we may be adopting this new sailing configuration for the Atlantic Crossing.

I just got up for my 6am shift. Man it is hard to get out of bed when is dark and cold outside. And you are all nice and warm snuggled in a down comforter. Yes it is cold outside can you believe 72 degrees. I have been living in a 85 to 120 degree sauna for the last 6 months, and now I am eying my sweat shirt. Another odd thing is the time change. We have gone though two time zones over the last 800 miles so now it is getting dark earlier. We are 130 miles away from Gibraltar so things are looking pretty good for an early morning arrival on the 22nd.

Last night was a real nail biter. Remember that we have not seen many ships since we left our friends on the North African Coast. Well we found all of them. They are between Formentera and the Spanish coast. Of course we did not hit the shipping lanes until midnight with 20 knots blowing. You could see them lined up on AIS in both directions for miles. So now we are a rabbit trying to cross the freeway without getting quashed. It took over 3 hours until we were safely across, but now the feeling is the same as after you drive over the bridges into Alameda.

I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that I just ground up our last batch of coffee that Jim brought. He was so kind to bring two pounds of Pee'ts Major Dickasons blend. We drink a lot of coffee on Azure II and good coffee is a real treat. I still cannot understand why you cannot buy dark roasted beans anywhere in the Med. It's such a pity. Oh ya I almost forgot.....the good news is that my buddy Ted will meet us in Gibraltar tomorrow with two more pounds of Peet's !