13:27.22N  54:21.30W

 

The wind eventually picked up during the night but has dropped off again to day. We have received the up to date positions of all yachts and it is still definitely a race.  We know that a couple of the big, heavy catamarans that need a good breeze to keep moving are now motoring and one, Lir, has passed us as a result. This may seem confusing to those who are studying the ‘Fleet Tracker’ as that info isn’t disclosed on there, but please be assured that it will all come out in the wash in the end. We are still in first position in the Multihulls! We have also found out that the two monohulls that are in overall positions 1 and 2 and are so much faster than everyone else, not only are they very flash bits of kit as we saw them before the start, but at least one of them and possibly both have professional crew on board so will be pushing 24/7.

 

We had a dramatic strike on the fishing line this morning and we spent a while bringing it in. We were sailing at 7kts dead down wind so slowing the boat down wasn’t easy as we had to reduce sail and turn the boat round.  This made the fact that all we had was a large clump of seaweed on the lure all the more frustrating!  Chris has been threatening us with some form of dried seaweed delicacy for days, but it didn’t look at all appetising from where we stood, and we all thought that it may take more than a few sprays with cheap vodka (on standby to spray in the fish gills) to get a meal out of it.  Chris also keeps promising Bananas. He bought a huge hand of green bananas 12 days ago in Mindelo, and they are still green. They steadfastly refuse to ripen, so we are taking bananas to St Lucia which is like taking coal to Newcastle. Banana exportation is the backbone of the St Lucian economy!