Almost......

16 th May 16:45 38 degrees 19 mins N  014 degrees 06 mins W
We are making good progress with a steady Northerly wind. Yesterday was our best day of sailing since we left the Caribbean. We covered 237 miles surpassing the day of the storm, in which we covered 231 miles while trying to slow the boat down. Ironically enough, yesterday we reefed our jib just before dark in order to lose some speed and gain a sounder night.
We are now 280 miles from port hoping to arrive early on Sunday (although the crew has told the doctor not to book his flight just yet).
This is just as well as the crew’s sailmaker has run out of reading matter and will soon be reading pilotage of the Caribbean. More important still is finding out who will be the lucky winner of our arrival time bet. It seems that this time, it will be the optimistic who will be rewarded. [written by one of the optimists]
Last night during a full moon and a clear sky several dolphins entertained us with a spectacular show of leaping and diving, keeping up with our speed of 10 Knots we could hear them clearly breathing through their blow holes.
This afternoon we saw one perhaps two large whales following in our wake at times coming within 20 metres of our stern. They put on a magnificent show; it was a very special treat to be accompanied by a mammal about half the length of the boat jumping around playfully. Perhaps our hulls look like two slim whales swimming side by side?  A video was made but the sound will have to be edited after too many “that’s a f------ing big whale“  were heard  from certain crew members. Technological competence permitting, we hope to put the video on DropBox on arrival, suitably edited, camerawork by Noam. All assistance in identifying the species much welcomed.
I am glad to report that the chef continues to maintain ships morale with her excellent cooking. We can recommend the fresh Azorian pineapple although it’s one hell of a detour and the queijo da ilhas goes down a bomb with either the marmelada or the presunto added to ship’s supplies. Sadly as Henri has previously commented on the sacriledge of consuming camembert sans red wine, we have hidden the bottles of Alentejo wine to await arrival in Portimao.