It is 0027 Saturday May 10. I was sleeping in the cockpit while Wade was keeping watch. We set up the watch schedule so Wade, Kevin and Andy have 2 hour watches each. I float between watches so I can help and fill in where needed. It is the same schedule I used with most of our racing over the years. It works well. If the weather is good I sleep in the cockpit where I can feel the wind, waves and the motion of OL. I felt the wind filling in and woke. I looked over towards Wade behind the wheel and smiled. Without much talk we both knew our wish was coming true. Our long awaited for wind had come to pay a visit. We eased off the mainsail, which has been up the entire trip, rolled out the jib and balanced out the sails and centerboard, letting OL stretch out her legs to just under 8kts with the Volvo throttled back to 1700 revs. She is a sailboat again after a day and a half of motoring in light to no breeze. She is sailing on her lines, slightly healed over on starboard tack with Bermuda ahead and slightly to port 218 nm.. We can feel the power and the grace of OL’s motion as she finds her rhythm with the sea. Earlier in the day Wade suggested we work our way to starboard of the rhumb line in search of a better current. It was a good call and now we have the benefit of a slight push of the current and of being upwind of our course. We are happy.
