Azores to Portugal (Ireland) - Day 6

Position 081200 JUL 12
N 40 29
W 015 32
710 NM Traveled
5.1 Knts Average speed (for the entire trip, not the last 24 hours)
113 NM Last 24 Hours
731 NM to Kinsale
20 NM on track
312 NM to Lisbon, Portugal

1. It should be "immediately obvious to the most casual observer" (I think that was the line of Thomas of calculus textbook fame) that Ireland is not happening. The Azores high - which was not being the Azores high when I was trying to get there, but is now just a big blob of high pressure in the eastern North Atlantic - is sitting behind me giving me North winds. Light North winds. In addition to not being able to go North, I am not feeling like I am going much at all. At least the seas have also calmed down. The rocking (of course they are beam seas) is not too bad.

2. I expect to make landfall somewhere near Lisbon. There are a couple of smaller ports within 10 km of the city. I hope to berth in one so I don't have to do the find the expensive marina in the crappy part of the big city routine. I have downloaded some pages from "Noonsite" so I do have coordinates and have been able to look at the charts.

3. I have learned that transits in the mid-latitudes are a bit uncomfortable. The air temperature has hovered around 60F to 65F pretty much the entire trip. In the cockpit in the wind that means bundling up quite a bit. When I rest I have to make sure not to over compensate with too many covers and sweat - then when I get up to check Reboot I get an immediate chill. When I was up in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland I took it for granted that it was going to be seriously cold and dressed the part. Here it came as a bit more of a surprise. In the back of my mind I think of Bermuda and the Azores as tropical, they are not.

Fair winds and following seas...