well done Gary. Watching your progress with interest..

This was my longest solo trip to date and in general was quite easy and straight forward. The west to east route is always considered more challenging but on this occasion it was better than the outward leg. I remained on starboard tack for the entire crossing. The first 4 days were tough as I was close hauled against the trade-winds and current but once I got to latitude 30 it started easing off a bit. Nothing broke on board and I received no injuries so in that respect was a perfect crossing. I got bored quite a lot, that was the only negative. I’m used to spending my time fixing things on these passages. 

PredictWind gave a 26 day passage in a best case scenario and to beat it by 8 days was pretty good. I think the main reasons for this was I was receiving daily weather routing from Stokey Woodall and the boat sailed way faster than I expected. Therefore the polar was wrong. On one particular day I hit 164 NM for the 24 hour period which is higher than hull speed. I guess I got some favourable currents giving a bit of free mileage. She happily cracked off 140-150 miles daily without trying. 

A bit depressing to get to Horta and find it completely full. I anchored for one night in the harbour and then set off for Ponta Delgado. 

Solo Atlantic Crossing Eastbound

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