Azzurra's crew has taken turns writing the blog and it is, at last, my turn. Problem is they are a hard act to follow. Johanna has accurately reported my fishing endeavors and Ainsley has described our sail thus far with such a vivid narrative. I must say first that Azzurra is most fortunate to have such a wonderful crew. We have British, Swedish and American influences that are making the journey rewarding and exciting. We are making friendships that will certainly last for life, and Dawn and I are most thankful for that. It is truly delightful having Johanna's youthful viewpoint and Ainsley's wisdom, experience and wonderful humor aboard for the crossing.
One of my discussions with Johanna bears mention here. It may be a cultural difference, it may be an age difference or it may be a gender difference, but our attempt at figuring out time zone changes resulted in diametrically opposed methods and different outcomes. After complicated mathematical, astronomical and geometrical calculations involving degrees, arcs, distances, times, and spherical properties we did come to the conclusion that we are going to set our clocks ahead 3 hours upon our entry to the Horta docks. We have since gone on to more mundane discussions.
As for the particulars of the days events we have had to repair our autopilot. The clutch gave out thereby freezing the quadrant despite the A/P being either engaged or not engaged. Luckily I had an old clutch onboard and we are back to a luxury cruise after replacing it this morning. It was a long night of hand steering the boat, however, and I again have a happy crew.
Thanks sincerely to all of our family and friends for their support, thanks for following us and thanks for reading our blogs.
Hopefully by the time the next blog comes out we will have caught some fish and will have transitioned from the pastime of "fishing" to the pastime of "catching."
Fair winds, following seas,
Ray
SV Azzurra