Finally after a couple of slow days the wind has filled back in and as I am writing up today's blog we are whizzing along at 7kts in 17kts of wind. Hopefully this continues now and we can start to eat up some of the miles for this second half of our trip.  

It's crazy to think that tomorrow it will be 2 weeks since we left Tenerife! I can't quite believe that! It seems to have gone so quickly and I am already struggling to keep track of the days; but Jamie has assured me it is Friday and that means tonight will be "works drinks" as per our usual ritual. Of course it's not quite the same as we will be drinking 0% Heineken but I suppose we are just unwittingly joining the "dry January" gang.

Last night was another slow one with light winds and slatting sails. We made a little more progress than the previous two nights (30nm between midnight and 8am which is approx. 10nm more than each of the previous). This morning we had just finished breakfast when Jamie noticed that two of the baton pockets on our mainsail had detached from their travel cars that carry them up and down the mast and the sail was flogging heavily as a result. It was a bit of a grim moment as we suspected these were broken and although we carry spares (hurrah for spares!) they are expensive bits of gear to need replacing two at a time. We pulled down the main and took a closer look. Fortunately they had come undone but not broken and Jamie was able to reattach them and administer a good helping of "Loctite" to keep them together. He inspected the others and found another loose one so they have all been given the loctite treatment now.

It's hardly surprising that things are chaffing and wearing after 2 weeks. It just goes to show that light winds and ocean swells can be as destructive as strong winds on sails and rigging - infact a flogging sail is likely to cause more wear than a full one but there isn't much we can do about that other than continue to set and tweek them regularly.

Our daily run at 2pm was 93nm which is creeping back up again at last and if the winds continue as they are - or get a little stronger still as forecasted - we should make some decent miles in the next few days.

We continue to point directly at Martinique and we are dreaming of that sweet Rum Punch :)