Day 18 to 38:19N 36:10W Wind F3-5S 152nm

A very wet night indeed particularly for Justin and I. After putting towels around the floors and doorway we decided we couldn't stop water coming in unless we shut the saloon door which I don't like to do with someone outside as they can't shout for assistance. During my watch I was reduced to staring out of a narrow slit in visibility close to zero. All I could see was the rain and the radar which showed there was rain all around me which I already knew. How I regret my AIS being out of action as it shows oncoming ships regardless of rain and visibility and how glad I am that no freighters showed up in our path last night.

After the rain and good run of the last few days the wind has dropped and backed so we are now close hauled and going into the swell. Since 4am our speed has been dropping and at 10:30 we were below my magic number of 5 knots. Although this is purely arbitrary I had decided that below this sailing speed we would run the engines and use them to maintain 6.5 knots. Louise and I are overjoyed, not just because we will get to Horta faster but because each of us has an engine underneath our berth and the heat from them dries out our cabins and means we have a nice warm comfortable bed to get into. The guys in front have to make do with shared body heat.

About this time on a passage you start to look forward to the delights of shore such as a laundry with a dryer and long hot marina showers. We have just over 370 miles to go and enough fuel to motor all the way if necessary so we hope to be there late Monday night or early Tuesday morning providing we don't get full Easterlies and a very big Easterly swell.

By the way, I'd like to stress here that I'm not whinging. Quite remarkablyin my experience there hasn't been a single whine or whinge from anybody during the whole of the trip. Even Justin and Jim who have at times been uncomfortable have just slept in the saloon or grinned and bore it. I wonder how everybody would have done if they had been surrounded by their nearest and dearest? Or, this might be quite an interesting set-up for a reality TV show. You take 8 of the kinds of people who like to go on these shows (with all the wonderful personality traits this implies) and one qualified (strict and demanding) captain, you give them minimum training and then put them under stress perhaps crossing the Pacific - fear, high wind, constant violent movement, cramped conditions, having to cook and be on night watches. You fill the boat with TV cameras linked to a satellite and convert one of the heads to a diary room. Each week one of the crew is ceremonially pushed off the boat in a lifejacket to be picked up and interviewed by a second craft. It could be called Captain Bligh, which strangely is what Jim calls me. I can't think why.

Entirely by luck we should be in Faial for their official national holiday, the feast of St. John on 24th June so will hopefully see some local colour (on the other hand you can bet the shops will be shut!). We all need a break from the movement and depending on the forecast may wait out the Easterly winds before setting off on the next and last leg of the voyage. My journal for July 2nd 2008 shows us passing Gibraltar, it seems an amazing coincidence that we are likely to arrive in Gibraltar on the same day one year and 14,000 miles later.

What an amazing year it's been.