Gryphon II has crossed the prime meridian and we have sailed back into the western hemisphere which we left in 2010 this means that although we are not back to our point of departure, we have in fact circumnavigated the globe - an extra treat for the skipper's birthday as well as the gleaming full moon that is lighting our way tonight.

We are traversing the Angola Basin on a course of 290º but very slowly. The pressure exerted by the South Atlantic High is causing extremely light and variable winds requiring a constantly changing sail plan to get any speed at all. There have been a couple of extensive cloud patches which created a local effect with rain and increased winds of 15-20 knots but they were not prolonged and our log more generally shows SSE winds of 11 knots and less. We could probably motor all the way to St Helena but that is not something we want to do. Thankfully the repaired cruising chute flew well when hoisted and looks to be strong enough for the job.

We haven't seen another vessel for 5 days now, the sea feels wide and empty. A couple of nights ago we saw a loom of light on the western horizon, probably a brightly lit fishing vessel but it remained just a loom. Other than that our AIS alarm alerted us to a ship at a range of some 16 miles but it came no nearer so we didn't see it. There have been hardly any birds and our only other wildlife sightings have been of occasional flying fish and a few sacrifices on deck by sticky squid and stiff open-mouthed flying fish – poor chaps.

We will probably arrive early on Friday morning, but hopefully with a nice bright moon to light our final approach and so we can see to pick up one of the yacht moorings.