Where Art Thou Wind?

So, almost nine full days into the trip and we are barely half way, as the crow flies, between Bermuda and Horta, Azores. The first four days we were going like gangbusters doing 130-140nm days but for the last five days we have been flailing trying to find the right combination of sail plan and wind. Joe, Dawn and Tefo have been pouring over GRIB files trying to find a wind pattern that would sustain us for several days. We have not made much forward progression the last two days as we have been trying to get North to find the trade winds. As a result we are pretty much at the back of the pack as a majority of the fleet is a few hundred nautical miles ahead of us. We are now hoping that if we catch the projected winds based on our interpretation of the GRIB files that we should arrive in Horta by about next Friday.

As for life on board we are all having a good time. We have two fishing poles out trolling off the back of the boat but no bites yet. Did some laundry ad hung the clothes on the life lines to dry. Every other day I come off a watch at 15:00 and relax with a Dark n Stormy since there is about 14 hours before I come back on. We have been visited by Dolphins at least three times yesterday and a pod of pilot whales went by us this morning. Both yesterday and today sea turtles have floated past us. Through the AIS on the GPS we can see boats that are in our vicinity. There was a sailboat that is not part of the ARC fleet that was ghosting us for a couple of days but we lost them when we decided to motor sail North to find wind. For a few day a huge boat, the He Hua Hai, 243m x 43m was keeping pace with us just over the port horizon but stopped yesterday. We then saw a tug, the Alp Winger, show up so we surmised that it had some sort of problem and called for a tow. As we turned North we could just see the very tops of the two vessels over the horizon as we went past.

Last night was another gorgeous sunset but we have yet to see the green flash. At that time the sea was absolutely flat, almost like glass, with just a slight swell, since when is the North Atlantic so benign?

Note: a quick flash of excitement, we finally got a bite on the fishing pole but before Tefo could come out and grab the pole the the line ran to the end and with the quick jerk that made the fish got loose. Out goes the line again...