Ian has a friend. 

 Sian's comment:  in 14 days Ian has sailed 1045 miles but made good only 720 towards Horta.  That is roughly one third of the total distance.  He hoped the trip home would take about 30 days, but it is going to be quite a lot longer than that.  Yesterday he took stock of the cans of food he has on board.

He also has quite a lot of dehydrated meals ( probably about 30 but he is taking stock today) which are balanced meat/veg mixtures (|I hope, seeing I created them) and multi vitamin tablets.  And plenty of water.  

 May 4th, Day 15

Trip metre 5340

Distance to Horta 1427

Distance sailed in 24 hrs 54

DMG 32

Yesterday and last night was more of the same, very light and variable direction wind.  Always beating. In the early hours of the morning a 15m French yacht sailed past at 4 knots versus my 2 knots.  At sunrise the wind picked up from the NE (so right where Horta is) but slowly eased off again until there was absolutely nothing, just rolling back and forth in the swell, going nowhere, except backwards in the current.  Windy forecasts some light wind later today and maybe a bit better tomorrow.  But Windy keeps changing its mind.  I ate 2 eggs last night and released some cracked ones into the sea.  They had been cracked for some time judging by the mess in the carton.  Now only 4 eggs left.  Sea very lumpy now and the motion is throwing what little wind there is out of the sails.

 May 3 Day 14

Trip metre 5286

Distance to Horta 1459

Distance in 24 hrs 60 nm

DMG 45 nm

0900 UTC

Slow sailing with periods of no wind.  When there is a little breeze it is always from a different direction.  Tacked a few times but not making progress.  A bit frustrating, and this should continue for a few more days according to weather forecasts.  Hopefully there will be a bit more wind after that, even though I will then be beating.

This is my course and it is even before rum o clock!!

 May 2nd

Trip metre 5336

Distance to Horta 1504

Distance in 24 hrs 81

Distance made good 69

1300UTC

Calm night with very little wind.  Wind slowly coming more from the North, more forward of the beam.  Nice sunrise but no extra wind strength.  Clear skies again so the solar panels are very happy.  No issues with power and I only put the big 110w panel out, if needed, to top up the 2 x 50a batteries.  Starlink is the biggest consumer of power - about 3 amps.  Rationing my data usage so the 50 Gb I pay for will last a month.  YouTube chews data, and it's easy to get distracted.  Funny to be shopping on Amazon from the middle of the Atlantic!  I saw my AIS position marked on Marine Traffic, a "satellite position", no name of the boat, but it matched my actual position exactly.   Comforting to know that my AIS is transmitting.

 May 1st 

Trip metre 5145

Distance to Horta 1573

Distance in 24 hrs 78

Distance made good 68

1300 UTC

After a rainy cloudy day yesterday, the night was very calm and cloudy with almost no wind.  This morning at sunrise the breeze started and at the same time I was surrounded by a large pod of small dolphins.  The first I've seen on this leg.  The sky is clear and I see on Windy that the front is now behind me.  The swells are building from the NNW about 2m.  Still smooth sailing though so they must be from a storm elsewhere.  Windy tells me I'm in for a lot of beating and zero wind patches.  So expect the worst and hope for the best.  I took stock of my water supplies, seeing this trip might take way longer than expected. So far I have used 28 litres in 10 days and I have 122 litres left, plus 5 litres in a can in the cockpit that I use for rinsing off after a salt water bath.

Video from yesterday evening

Which coffee should I choose tonight?  Bart will understand - thanks Mrs Bart. Been saving some for trip home

This is how I take care of my plastic waste. This is 10 days worth. Glass and tins go over the side. There is no food waste - I eat everything!

Leaving the tropics. Maybe it will cool down now

 April 30 Day 11

Trip metre 5067 nm

Distance to Horta 1641 nm

Distance sailed in 24 hrs 92 nm

Distance made good 82 nm

1300 UCT

As expected the rain and squalls caught up with us.  Just after dark!  Had to drop the main in huge gusts and pouring rain.  No sooner than everything was tied down and closed up but the wind and rain dropped.  Even saw some stars and almost full moon through gaps in the clouds.  Went out to rehoist the mainsail and discovered that the halyard was caught up on something.  In the dark I could not see what the problem was so sailed most of the night under poled out jib only.  Speed was slow and I lost out many miles.  At dawn I saw the halyard had spun around the mast and hooked on the gennaker halyard block.  It was easy enough to flick off standing on the bow.  Main up again in fading wind and dropped the jib pole.  Heading a bit more northerly.  I was hoping to hang onto the favourable wind for longer but I think the slow night has left me behind.  Lots of ominous squalls around this morning but so far no lightning.  Weetabix and coffee for breakfast.