14:51.4N 36:23.7W at noon GMT.  1427nm to go.  171nm made good

We are now firmly into the trades, downwind sailing, with just a little too much wind to fly the kite.  This is actually a good thing, as I missed from yesterday's post that we had the excitement of the kite furler going ping on Saturday afternoon, leaving the furling line in the water and the kite firmly up.  Fortunately the winds were light (10kn), so whilst the thing breaking is inexplicable it did mean that we were able to do a 'letterbox drop', blanketing the kite with the main and hauling all of it into the cockpit.  That was quite hard work with only 4 of us, as we need one person on the helm, one dealing with the halyard and tack lines, leaving 2 to haul all 280 sqm of it in.  As always, Arran and Tony came up with a fix, which certainly includes the staples of cable ties, gaffer tape and sikaflex, but more importantly a good supply of square lashes underneath.  Whether this will beat the (what must have been pretty flakey) factory hydraulic swaging underneath remains to be seen.  We haven't had the chance to test it yet, as we'll need light winds to hoist the kite and then furl, but at least it is there.  We are all pretty unimpressed with the furling gear, as in the few days of use since new two bits of factory provided kit have  broken, one on the first day and now this.  When we are in I think there will be a 'conversation' with the supplier Bamar.

With the trades filling in, we had a good 24hrs run without it - 171nm made good.  Great sunday roast yesterday, timed to perfection so we were all below for the first dose of rain.  Picked up a passenger on the foredeck this morning, and hooked a good sized Dorado, which then got away.

Much discussion about what 'half way' really is, but we crossed the 'equi-distant from Las Palmas and Rodney Bay' point at c.1300 GMT today, so I think we might have another glass of wine with dinner just to make sure we celebrated the right day.