It's turned out to be an almost perfect night (I'm goong to get terriblys muddled up with my tenses as we continue this voyage).
As I write this dawn is breaking on Thursday morning 12th August and we are headed North East at 3.5 - 4 knots with a gentle breeze directly from behind. The decks and the cockpit have been completely dry and I very nearly slept on deck! The only spoiler is the banging of gear as the boat rolls in the swell. Oh and Sao Miguel is still in view.
The plan now is to ride this wind until it turns too far (from the) south in perhaps a day's time when we'll take it more in the quarter in order to continue North Eastwards. There's a big calm patch due ro develop up ahead not far to the north of our route so we need to avoid that. To the south of it, a narrow band of reasonably fair winds should open up but to the south of that, will be headwinds which we will want to avoid. We have enlisted Ian to help with weather routing. He can sent us text messages via the Yellowbrick in an effort to keep us in the best wind corridors.
The night sky has been crystal clear and the stars have been magnificent. I've been able to improve my constellation identification and have added Lyra, Cassopea and Drago to my limited catch hitherto of the big and small dippers and Scorpio. Earlier on in the night as we were eating dinner in the cockpit, I saw the most magnificent shooting star. I saw another later just before dawn.
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