Position 17:27.120N  33:53.107W

My watch seems to have all the wind. Almost every watch so far I have had to reef at about 0100. Last night,  when I came on deck we were doing 3.6 knots in our second rain shower since Las Palmas. One hour later, as a thunder storm tracked north of us lighting the whole sky, and under two reefs we were doing 8.5 with wind speed reaching 35knots and 40 0ver the deck. Other than this the night was black with cloud and not another vessel sighted. As soon as my watch finishes all seems to die down again.

The VHF seems to have had a gag order placed on it and I am regularly checking the volume control as we get lonely. Poor things.

We have 1576 miles to go to St Lucia, fast approaching our halfway 1400 point. Each time Jeanot comes on deck he reads the mileage aloud along with the corresponding fact from the same date in history. “Ah 1601…the battle of Kinsale”, “1612…. Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock” etc. As we round St Lucia to the north we will be getting into BC, we will see how good he is then.

We are running low on Cornflakes. This may not seem like much of a problem as I have made muesli instead, but it’s the tinkle of Toms Cornflakes in the morning that get me out of my bunk. The tone and frequency of the muesli in the bowl is quite different and inaudible from my cabin.

Tomorrow evening we are expecting heavy weather. Some extra sleep today wont go astray and things should calm down by Friday morning when we can expect a couple of days of light wind. From there on Sunday we are hoping to pick up what is left of the trades. In the meantime we are still reaching in relatively stable south easterlies around 20 kts. Under full sail this is giving us speed over the ground of 6-6.5 kts.

The humidity is very high at the moment and with every movement on board taking quite a lot of effort it is difficult to keep cool. 28 degrees at the moment and it doesn’t really drop much on the cloudy nights. Sleeping is difficult but everybody is in good spirits.

Todays Limerick

We crossed the start line quite quick

With our rivals taking a lick

Out now on the ocean

We’re blending a potion

To keep us from getting sea sick