15:48.814N 50:01.821W

A clear night and magnificent view of the stars led us to expect plenty of sun yesterday. In fact we have had the opposite - grey skies all day plus the frequent arrival of blacker clouds and rain squalls. The rain is torrential and sometimes lasts for almost a whole watch – each of us are struggling with wet gear – Tim did his last watch in swimmers!

The temperatures remain tropical of course – the sea temperature is 32.5 degrees, and the boat is getting seriously hot and muggy with lots of wet clothes below and little opportunity to open the hatches between showers. A bit of dry weather and sun today (or even a little of the snow promised for the UK) would be just great.  

Fortunately the wind direction and strength (20-28 kts gusting to over 36!) have still allowed us a fast downwind passage with periods of surfing – last night we hit 16.4 knots at one stage and had many surfs at over 12 knots. Only the sun sights have been a casualty, not even a glimmer.

Our weather data sources now include weather faxes from Boston (obtained using just a iPad running HFFAX, with its microphone resting on a Sony shortwave radio}.  We are expecting consistent NE winds for the remainder of our passage, and with luck further daily runs of some 170 miles – making it about 4 days to go. The lead racing boats who set off two days before us have now finished. The slowest boats are about 3 days behind.

Sadly we have proved the theory that when spoons are loaded into a washing up bucket of seawater and the said bucket is tipped over the side, the spoons will no longer exist on the boat. Spoons can only be in one place at a time, and this place, RIP dear spoons, is now the bottom of the Atlantic. Aghh!

And up to then (or until the Skipper got involved) our seawater washing routine was a triumph of speed and efficiency.

So the skipper who has been the principal (but not sole) culprit – is offering a prize for the best fabricated tea or dessert spoon. Barbara tells us that her Dutch school survival training has prepared her for this specific emergency so we all expect her to win. No one is quite sure why emergency spoons are not part of our grab bag, and are convinced Tim is hiding a supply somewhere.

 Mike, Tim, Barbara & Mike