Booby on the Bar

Yes, the Atlantic crossing was as exciting as the title of this post suggests but more about that later. We were incredibly fortunate to have another high pressure system dominating the north Atlantic, providing perfect conditions for a crossing.  The lack of an internet connection did provide the benefit of ensuring that we were not all hunkered down behind computer screens all day and much to Carols delight had to talk.

It allowed us to all get to know each other on a much deeper level.  We now all know that Peter practices his chicken walk and clucking in the shower (step carefully Peter!), Ed is happy to do just half a job, Howard is Jewish (who knew?), Neil needs to eat a slice of humble pie once in a while, Carol has one or two compulsive personality issues and we now all know more about John's misspent ‘missing years’ in San Francisco.

The other benefit from the lack of internet was the many highly competitive games of cards, speed scrabble and Chickenfoot. 

Peter and Neil face off in another intense game of Gin.

Chickenfoot: Neil looks unwell but Peters practice sessions in the shower appear to be paying dividends.

While we did not have access to watch any of the Olympic Games we were treated to Dolphin olympics on more than one occasion. 

There was the long jump.

This fellow took gold in the high jump.

The 100m final was as popular as ever.

The disappointing part of the crossing was saying saying goodbye to Ed who departed from the Azores to head back home. Our original plan was to spend a night or two in the Azores to have a break from several days of 24 hour cruising. However upon our arrival in San Miguel we soon found that the extortionist rate to tie up was not worth it.  We dropped Ed off on the dock and it was not before we were back on our way and Ed was busy befriending the entire island. 

The Azores, so close yet so far for those going all the way.

One evening while having dinner Capt. Mike called us up to the wheel house to see a Brown Booby perched on the front railing a Booby on the bar of another kind.. Bird nerd alert.  Despite looking very unstable he did manage to spend the entire night perched on the rail. 

With five days of cruising to reach Gibraltar we continued on our way.