134 mil to Fernando,

Pos: 04 44 S, 030 19 W,

 Squalls kept attacking me all night long (once I even couldn’t open my eyes, and the drops were so heavy, it virtually hurt as they were bombing my skin). I know one thing: we can handle a lot, in fact – much more than we think... I’ve just spent 22 hours at the helm, can you imagine that? Human hope is just incredible, too: all night, I kept telling myself that this squall is surely the last one, and then the morning would change something... and it did – wind died totally, which meant that I had to carry on navigating, just this time with the engine on.
In the scorching sun, I’ve been looking out for at least a little puff in my sails. I switched the autohelm to light winds, but it didn’t help a lot. I spent all day trying to stay awake, and watching birds as they were hunting tunas springing out of water. I had a nice visit, too – for the first time in the Atlantic, I met a beautiful pod of dolphins...