The wind eased further during today’s afternoon hours as predicted and we are running under engine towards Horta. Not even worth to motor sail. There is no impact from the sails below 5kn TWS and on top of that, the wind direction is on the nose, first time since 14 days, luckily.

Once the windwaves were complete gone, the sea became very glassy, only left with some wide old swell still giving the surface a ponderous but lively patina. Some dolphins came along and plenty of Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish passing by. We did not spot any more whales unfortunatly.

The waning moon just joined me on my watch. Moon rise was at 3:42am UTC today and it provides a strong reflection on the water at 1 o’clock starboard side just above the waterline. Together with the million of stars under the cloudless sky it feels good to be embraced in a very peaceful ambience.

Traffic is increasing and clearly visible per AIS on the chart plotter. Some known names pop up like SY Northstar, a boat under US flag with a bunch of very friendly and pleasant guys from Israel. They anchored next to us in St. George/Bermuda and left a day earlier. SY Vahine with Skipper Jonas from Finnland has arrived in Horta with his 50 year old heritage SWAN 65, a S&S design as he told me over VHF about a week ago when passing by. Although we are still 45nm away, we can see his AIS signal also on the plotter, strange. We agreed at that time to have a beer together (or two) in Peters Café Sport.

I promised myself to jump into the water for a swim, if it is still glassy at sunrise and take a photo of the lady from a worm’s eye view. It will not be an easy one at water temperatures below 15°C and the temptation is firmly linked to duck pond scenery. Let’s see!?!

Time to enjoy the last few hours of this passage rather than writing more trivia.

Fair winds…