It is 4:30 on Sunday afternoon. We are well-rested finally. Last night we endured 12 to 14 hours (it’s hard to be precise) of zero wind. We were actually drifting east, away from the rhumb line and Newport, for most of that time. But the lull afforded us some good long sleep.
Monica and I have always been a good team. We’re both hard workers. That helps out here. Each of us is looking for something to do, so in the end we’re helping each other.
About 10 o’clock this morning, the wind got up to about 3 knots, and we could finally steer Robin. Slowly the wind built after that, coming from the west. Now we’ve been sailing at a steady 4 to 5 knots since about noon and have put on 35 miles.

We just listened to Herb Hilgenberg’s weather report. When Peter McCrea checked in, he gave his coordinates. He is 83 miles ahead of us, apparently having dodged our light air. But that is not a whole lot in the course of a 635-mile race. We’re both on the same track and will probably cross the Gulf Stream in about the same location. If I understood Herb correctly, Peter will face light winds and a strong easterly set in the Stream. By the time we get there, maybe the winds will have increased.

Today was postcard perfect, but new weather has come in. It appears that the wind will swing around and come from behind us, pushing us toward Newport tonight and tomorrow. This is a package deal, though. We can expect rain. It is thoroughly overcast right now, with gray, rainy looking patches on the horizon.

As long as we keep moving …

We’ve done a lot of reading. The fishing line is dragging behind us, but nothing has shown any interest. I made a strap out of webbing that I can hitch on the front of the chart table and lean back against when we’re on a starboard tack. That will make blogging and working with the charts a more stable thing when the sea is running.

We have discussed when it would be appropriate to bail out of this leg. I think the consensus of two is that, given as much time as we have to get back, there would be no good time. We’ll just sail until we get to Newport. If that means Monica can’t sail to Maine, there will be other times. And maybe she can come up for a visit while I’m there.

But we’ll deal with those issues later. For now, the Atlantic is where we are and what we’re going to be thinking about.

My discomfort left me this morning, as I suspected it would. We’re eating well. Monica is planning to cook chicken tenders for dinner. (Last night, it was canned chicken noodle soup.)

I think I’m going to have to lock the sat phone up, though. I have a communications junkie aboard. Monica is having withdrawal not being able to read the blog responses or to watch iboatTrack!