15.19.7N 55.23.2W

We celebrated another birthday on board today. This time it was Bruce’s big day. (He’s the boy with the blue cone on his head). A birthday feast of Paella with smoked mussels and clams was prepared by David, who was careful to keep his new pinney clean.

We had a very busy night with two sail changes to accommodate wind shifts. These changes are non-trivial and not without risk at night. Working on the foredeck by torchlight in bucking seas, whilst maintaining boat speed is no simple task. It’s hard physical work and in this humid weather the sweat really flows. Both Alan (Skipper) and Kevin were hit by flying fish in the night. Whilst they are not large they are moving fast so they really thud. They also have loose scales and stink, so not a pleasant experience!

We are back in contact with other boats! We sighted Skagerrak (218) at 17:00. There are 12 or so boats in reasonably close proximity (10 - 15 miles). Our race to the line is really with these few boats. We expect others amongst them to come into sight soon, probably overnight. Four boats have finished now, and we are part of the next wave. Our fleet placing stood at 31 as of noon today. Can we improve it? The wind has eased a little and we have unrolled all sails to keep our speed up. We will need to concentrate to the end.