Position 15:18.954N 045:35.280W

The removal of the netting fouling the propeller seems to have had an effect on both our speed under power and under sail, the drag must have been substantial and over two weeks it must have hampered our progress quite a bit not to mention the first 36 or so hours when we had the full net on the keel also.

We repaired a small hole in the mainsail this morning where it had been chafing on the lower spreaders despite the fact that we had covered everything with rubber hose and duck tape. It was quite a small hole and not totally unexpected and we had patches ready for such an occurrence.

Our VHF crackled to life this morning and we sighted the French yacht Mageste about 5 miles astern, they were headed for Martinique and after a brief chat we left them behind. This is the first vessel we have seen for many days and the first VHF contact in about a week. I guess that as we close on St. Lucia we will encounter more and more yachts. At present we can see about 5 miles in any direction which is not a big area in the scheme of things and it is relatively easy to loose 200 boats.

We tried flying fish for lunch today. Very tasty actually, and not at all oily as we had suspected. Pan fried with a little lemon juice it reminded me of the texture and flavour of halibut. They are very small though and you would eat quite a few to make a full meal. We will put on our deck level navigation lights on tonight to coax more aboard, up to now we have been using the masthead backup lights.

Doinjg 7 knots at the moment in northerlies, still no proper trade winds although we have ENE forecast west of us and should catch that tomorrow. These northerlies suit us quite well though and we are making good ground. Now 893 miles from West Indies we hope to be there by next Tuesday.

Received from Matt and Annie, the wild two on Yacht Wild One

There was a great yacht they called Cerys

Whose skipper was mad as his misses

They crossed the Atlantic

And sounded quite frantic

Cos nothing would rhyme with Ursula

Annie's version.

There was a cool skipper called Rory

Whose age was the right side of forty

He took to the sea

With a fine crew of three

A got to St Lucia in glory.