Voyageur - Leg 2 - Log 8 Following winds and seas

25 May

This is a bit more like it. We are in a much better place as of yesterday morning running as we are dead downwind in a west south westerly of 20knots, Voyageur averaging around eight and half knots over the ground. We have been waiting days for this wondering if it would ever come. Again we had another fabulous dawn, on this trip the sunrises much more impressive than the sunsets. The sun as it bursts upon the horizon seems larger and redder than I ever remembered and its ascent so rapid, you have to keep your eyes transfixed as it pops up like a giant red balloon that has been held down under water only to be suddenly released. I shall miss these special moments more than anything else.

Last night Herb predicted heavy weather around the Azores on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week so we are now on a mission to get there by Monday. 

It is 5 o’clock on Friday evening and we have just dipped below the 400nm mark, the log reading 399.9nm. It is a lovely evening and I am sitting in the cockpit sipping a glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc. As everyone knows I like to pop an ice cube or two into my wine but soon it won’t be necessary. It is freezing cold. We are in socks and two fleeces but completely out of the wind behind our cockpit enclosure. We count only three other boats on the rally that might have the luxury of such superb shelter.

Susan Mackay