19.24N 39.18W  Where does the time go to?  Two more days have seamlessly slipped by so here I am at 18.30 after the evening roll call and radio chat tucked up in my bunk writing my blog.

Yesterday we sailed with whales – yes I know you hear  all the time ‘oh we saw a whale’ but these whales were huge – may be the length of our boat 14 metres?  They were so graceful and so close, just a few feet away rising above the surface and blowing and then turning over to swim with us belly up showing their vulnerable white tummies!  Is this their mating game?  I don’t know but it makes hunting this amazing species hard to comprehend…….

I am sure you are all dying to know what happened to the pong?  Well it is still with us but has moved away from the under floor of the aft cabin and now sits in Paul’s engine room!!  We have tried to sluice it away but it stubbornly stays where it is.  The weather is getting warmer which does not bode well…….

Not that we are obsessed with pongs but there was another one in one of the two fridges so we had the whole lot out today – rinsing down each vacuum packed package until we hit the culprit nearly at the bottom – goats cheese – yuck.  We have an enormous amount of provisions left although fresh fruit and vegetables are just about finished – we have two tomatoes, four bananas, two cabbages, four carrots, two grapefruit, five onions, loads of garlic and a bag of lemons left.  We are amazed they have lasted this long – fourteen days!!  I chopped up the remains of the long life pressed turkey last night and made a disgusting if memorable curry but tonight we had a more successful chilli con carne.  The trick is to get started early before the light goes and eat before sunset.  After my watch 2400 to 2.00 I sleep until 9.00 am so there are only around 9 hours of daylight left!

We have had cloudy days with steady winds between 10 and 20 knots which just keep ploughing us on and on and on – don’t you think it amazing that five people on a boat can all go about their hobbies, repairs and business all day and night and it just keeps going – all on its own – down the given track.  I likened it today to being in a car in the desert for 21 days with the wheel tied in position and a brick on the accelerator!  The only difference being that this is as free as the wind!! 

With the water maker working again we have all had showers and have attempted a long overdue wash but horror of horrors most of the clothes in the bag are covered in mildew (and some have surreptitiously been donated to the deep!!)

Running repairs: the Hydro vane came loose again yesterday on its mountings and Paul and Bennett went headfirst into the back lockers to fix the bolts with Michael hanging off the back too…. A great photo opportunity  was not lost! The propeller has had some adaptations to stop it flicking backwards and hanging onto its rope – namely a hole in each of the three blades and a wire stretched across each to ping off when it doubles back – successful so far.  The second guard rail just literally dropped off today which isn’t a great confidence builder but has been fixed.  We have fitted two sheets (lines  or ropes)  to the universal joint of the Twistle rig in order to obtain a ‘belt a braces’ safeguard in case one of the lines were to fail.

It is still squally at night but with warm rain.  We are achieving around 170 mile days which is fantastic for this old 25 year old dame of the seas. We are so proud of her –  she is steady and comfortable and although we roll a little,  listening to the radio reports of the other boats a number have had a very tough time of it with the rolling they have experienced.

Michael has grown a beard and so has Oscar.  Bennett grew hair but shaved it all off today.  We have crossed the half way mark and celebrated with a BIG breakfast – sausages, burgers, tomatoes, eggs on toast with home made marmalade – thank you Chris Frederick! 

We were warned that once the ARC started we might have difficulty picking up messages on the iridium and sure enough we had no incoming emails today…… for anyone reading this though all the boats are okay – Hakuna Matata have had a quiet day and made good progress, Neva are on their way now from Tenerife, Big Blue still in Puerta Calero but leaving today we think, Zippy do da have fixed all their problems and everyone sounds in good spirits on the radio net.. ……