14:48.5N 55:20.5W

320 miles to go. Well the last 24 hours have not given us the 20 to 25kt winds needed to make landfall before dark tomorrow (Thursday) and with winds around 10 to 15kts we have an ETA of sometime on Friday morning. Feedback tells us we are around 54th position overall and 4th in class. Not bad for a bunch of inexperienced sailors, particularly as we lost the equivalent of a day in the first 3 days when we tore our big cruising chute. Glen's repair has held perfectly and we would still be in mid Atlantic without this sail.

Life onboard has been very comfortable, short of an open fire (not really necessary in the tropics) we have most of the creature comforts that you would find at home. With less than a couple of days to go now it is clear that we put on board far more food than we could possibly consume but having eaten most of the perishables the rest will keep and get eaten over the coming months. Apart from running out of frozen bread and tea bags we have had all we needed and it has been amazing how long the fresh fruit and veg has lasted. We still have some nice tomatoes that we bought green in Las Palmas and have now ripened nicely. Before we set off we decided that we would run a dry ship (no alcohol) and this is the longest I've gone for a long time without a glass of wine. I'm therefore looking forward to a glass of bubbly when we arrive and a glass or two of decent red wine with dinner on the day of arrival.

I made another fish pie last night, this time made with a Dorado that Glen had caught and expertly filleted, together with some smoked salmon we had bought as a luxury in Las Palmas.

We continue to have the Egret on board that stowed away a few days ago. I'm not sure what he was doing in mid Atlantic or where he was heading but he has decided that it is easier hitching a ride with us than trying to fly to land. I hope that he enjoys his time in the Caribbean! We feed him the flying fish that we find on deck most mornings and have tried to tempt him with some old bread but he has turned his nose up at this... he’s a fussy bugger and he is not house trained!