The good news for me is that from around midnight, local time, the wind started to veer into the SE and then to the S. It stayed light and maybe dropped a little further but Ellen needed no encouragement and took the lifts towards Azores. At dawn this morning, we were headed directly into the rising sun on a course of 060°T, parallel to the rhumb line for Horta. I’ll need to be careful to stay above the rhumb line so I don’t fall into the trap of sailing straight into the centre of the high pressure I’ve been trying to skirt for so long. This is the first time in 45 days that I have intentionally made a course towards the East and it feels very strange! For the last 45 days the heading on my compass has been between 300° and 350° (ignoring the days in the doldrums where any course was acceptable as long as it involved movement). For the last 45 days the sun has risen to starboard and set to port. I’ve grown accustomed to where the stars ‘should be’ in relation to my heading, and life has developed a pattern. That’s all changed now and there will be a new pattern.
