Our goal is to sail North and East. We usually can’t have both so we choose the point of sail that has us moving in one of those two directions.
A low moved in and pushed out the high, causing the winds to rotate in the opposite direction. Now, the Portuguese Trade Winds are blowing from the South and the winds around the Azores are blowing from the North.
Instead of beating into the North winds, we simply tacked over and sailed East! 68 nautical miles later (noon to noon) and we were 68 miles closer to Portugal.
