We are 13 hours into the atlantic from Cape Verde, having set off at first light, following a peaceful still night’s sleep in harbour which in turn followed the most delicious Tuna steak I have ever eaten.

So now we must catch some more Tuna ourselves, 6 years after the last big successes when we crossed the pond last time

We have had a great day’s sail with the big gennaker up for several hours

We are chafing the halyard at the top of the mast and worry about losing it and therefore not being able to fly this big kite so we will seek a solution tomorrow- which may mean going up the mast- not sure yet

Apart from that we are working well as a team and the crew are shaping up further now- having to work harder together when we do have that big sail up- we need 4 min’m crew to hoist   and later recover it and we all have to do our bit properly at the right time- so good team work.

1939 miles to go so we have sailed 86M in 13 hrs ie 6.6K which is pretty good- and faster than on most of the last two legs. This is due to flying the kite for longer than we have been able to do on previous courses

Now motor sailing through a peaceful night with a red moon rising behind us.

We had one large private motor boat slowly overtake us, clearly also on route for the Caribbean. We tried to guess how much fuel they will consume at say 5-10 gallons per hr for 10 days- yes we are enjoying doing lots of calculations... what is our average speed, how far have we sailed what speed now. So far Janet and Neil are ahead with one point each. Fish nill point so far.

Ok time for kip for the skip as I am on watch again on the 2-6 a.m. shift ( the dog watch? short straw tonight!)

All well