14:09N  39:53W

160 miles run in the last 24 hours, mostly under white sails.  Had our first decent interaction with bottlenosed dolphins on this passage today – always a joy to see them manoeuvring so accurately around the bow of the boat.  We are ‘in company’ with three other yachts of similar waterline length to Escapade, all within about 15 miles of us and following a similar course: ‘Aranui’, ‘Wildside’ and ‘’Mirabella’.  The latter two are reaching and gybing downwind whilst Aranui and ourselves are following a more sedate, direct downwind route.  So far, our strategy is working better!  As a racer, I would tend to look for better boatspeed by reaching and gybing, but here we need to look after the boat and ourselves carefully, so a more conservative approach is needed.  So long as we cover 150 miles a day without breaking anything, I’m happy!

1286 miles to run!

Richard & Julie XX