Having motored for about 34 hours, the wind finally filled in sufficiently around midday today for us to resume sailing. We are now enjoying very pleasant gentle close reaching in a SSW 8-10 knot breeze on relatively flat seas with the sun shining and air temperature very comfortable. Our speed over the ground has risen to around 7 knots. Life is good!

Having received a weather update from Chris Parker around sunset yesterday, we reduced our motoring speed. He thought we might otherwise have been in the Gulf Stream while a front passes over the area Friday night and suggested delaying our arrival at the Gulf Stream until after it has passed. We shall be checking back in with him tomorrow to make sure our current strategy is still the best approach.

We have seen a few cargo vessels and one motor cruiser sport fishing boat (a multi-storey vessel) pass reasonably close to us but have not caught sight of any other sailing vessels in the last day or so. Otherwise, we have been seeing plenty of the ‘Portuguese Man O’ War’ jelly fish with their ‘sails’, and a few birds, including a Bermuda longtail (which was a very long way from home) and a Shearwater.