On our way to Porto Santo

We departed Cascais Wednesday afternoon. We had just received a parcell of tools ordered online, filled our tanks with freshwater.
Maintank and 2 jerry cans filled with diesel. Diesel is getting very expensive. 1,65 Euro per litre.

So far we have been sailing and steering by our trusted Hydrovane wind rudder.
It needs correction quite often as it will veer of course slightly. On a longer voyage 1000 nm or more you can accept
drifting of course and longer intervalls between ajdustments. But now our voyage is less than 500nm.
Adjustments at night time gives us less time to rest/sleep. Yes - we do sleep on watch.
Our AIS system is keeping us safe and decides how long sleeping periods we can allow to do.
Usually we have napps of 30minutes or max 2 hours.

So the Hydrovane is used at daytime and the electric autopilot at night time. The autopilot draws from 4-6 Amps,
so in order to maintain the battery capacity we run the engine at just above idle speed. It also helps with a half/one knot extra. Charging is also pretty good from our wind generator and at daytime solar panels.

The weather is perfect. We have winds constantly from the north at 10 to 15 knots, meaning 130 degrees into our starboard side.
Speed is averaging 5.7 knots. Looks like we will arrive Porto Santo early morning on Sunday the 19th.

We are both feeling well and the boat is performing excellent. We have a Danish neightbour 10 miles off our port side.
S/Y Hennessy also bound for Porto Santo.

Grete & Geir