well the atlantic is turning out to be the way i expected the pacific to be way back when! the swells in the actual ocean are soo much better than the ones in the med with their longer period, amazing what a difference it makes. its still plenty rolly when the wind is on the stern but most of today had 10 kts winds on the beam. this was great as i was able to do close to 6 kts with this. there must be a south bound current of at least a knot on my track to make this possible.

i broke out a new book today some sort of cold war espionage thing i got at the book swap in Gibraltar not bad and have only made it though about half. all systems seem to be running at 100% including the genset and boom. i have been able to talk to heartsong and imagine on out baby ssb net at 7am the last two days. they have finally got out of ibiza and are in mainland spain. hopefully they will get to the cannaries before i decide to head further south.

i got another great sunset although i had to put on my puffy coat to sit up on the rail to watch. i even had salmon pate on ritz while i watched it. my only regret was not having any one to share it with! i have finished just about all the leftovers so tomorrow may actually have to cook some thing with the limited propane.

the night watch thing by myself is really not that bad. the ais and radar are great but after the first night there have been very few contacts. i did appreciate it at one point last night when we had 4 tankers converging within a few miles of me. it would have been very hard with just visual to sort thing out. the good news is i am making such good time if things hold i should be able to make landfall at lanzarote just before sunset. crisa on vagabond emailed a good anchorage there so i am looking fwd to catching up with him as well.

cheers, roger