It is perhaps too perfect a morning.

Horta, Island of Faial, Azores

Behind, to the west, sets a jolly fat moon, in her great orange jacket, shouting to us "Good day, good day" after her brilliant company all the night long. Before us, the days sun rays streak yellow from behind the earth's rim, promising a new glorious day by setting the clouds ringing the horizon red with fire. And overhead, the main, staysail and genoa, pull in silent earnest to Horta, now only 20miles away below the horizon to the N.
Irena steps to the companion way, hands me a Café latte, heated to just the right temperature, and gives me a kiss, " I am off to sleep for a few hours, have a great watch babe". She steps back down the companionway and into the cabin's shadows, leaving me alone to wake with my coffee and contemplate our passage. I am very groggy this morning and more than happy to luxuriate in the freedom to simply sit and await my coffee's to bring sensibility and excitement to the day. I see the setting moon and rising sun and wonder is "Is this perhaps too perfect a morning?" But what could that mean? How could any morning at sea be too perfect?
Mornings can certainly be less than perfect! Stuck in traffic. And yes at sea too. We have had less than perfect mornings, like the last few mornings, after a night of howling winds, hissing seas and a boat bouncing wildly underfoot like a bucking horse, trying to pitch us across the cabin or out of our berths. "It's the sound of the wind in the rigging that is the most draining" I once read, about a storm at sea in a small boat, and found it to be true.
But not this morning. Harbour is just a few hours away and it's a perfect day coming on after a pretty tough upwind sail of the last 18 days. Sailing the whole span of the NE trades from just north of the equator to 32 degrees north latitude was a lot of work, but nowhere near the work of the last four days, trying to sail the last 300 miles to the Azores against a stubborn Low holding a wall of N winds in our face at 25 to 35 knots. We spent about a ¼ of our time hove to, waiting for the wind to ease just enough to allow us to resume sail and bash away, chiselling out the windward distance, one bumpy mile at a time. But that is behind us for now, for this morning, it's a perfect morning. Think I'll go make myself another cup of coffee and watch for the Azores to show up in the dawn light.
Post Note;
We did arrive in the Azores after a pretty good 28 day passage all the way from Saint Helena. We see that none of blogs from at sea have made it online for reasons we cannot determine. Rats!
We have spent the last 6 days drying out and sleeping the sleep of the weary traveller. After a day of touring the island yesterday in a rental car, we are provisioned and watered and ready for sea again tomorrow morning. We are headed for Lagos, Portugal, a mere 1000 miles away.