The night was accompanied with comfortable winds and good rest. With the first reef in the main we made good progress towards Madeira. As per the forecast it has now picked up a bit to 25kn and I hope it will stay there as this is the value predicted by Menno after looking at his raw data. I have put another reef in the foresail and we are flying along with 6kn boat speed.

The wind came with the clouds and one of them passed through 2-3 miles ahead of us deploying some rain. It was our fortune, that we missed the rain by such a short distance. In a few hours the wind will get back to 15kn and we can reef out again.

There are two sailing manouvers planned for today. We will first get the foresail shifted to enjoy some butterfly sailing for a while and then I expect in the afternoon hours to gybe the main sail and take the spinnaker pole back in. This will then bring us to the western tip of Madeira where the – by then notherly winds – will drop to zero and we will motor the last 20nm into Funchal. At least we have a plan.

Fair winds…&…bon weekend.