20.33.80N 31.30.36W

We passed the 1000 miles mark today. We are now definitely in the northern limits of the trade winds and they are blowing well. We are enjoying a fairly constant 15 – 20 knots. We achieved a new boat speed record of 14.2 knots early this afternoon. The swell is increasing and the excitement mounting.

Two boats are on our tail. One, Zambezi was 3 miles behind our stern at 05:30, but now (17:00) are 6 miles back. So we are holding them off.  Given how far we have come, this is surprisingly close racing.

Three flying fish sacrificed themselves on our foredeck over night. They simply jumped on and could not get off again. Bruce and Kevin had one join them in the cockpit in the early hours. They squealed like girlies, but found the courage to manhandle it back into the ocean. These little fish can fly 20 meters or more over the surface. Impressive to watch. The theory is they are escaping a predator.

Richard has been on ‘mother watch’ today, and has fed us all well. He has also developed a new technique for washing the cutlery. The process is undertaken some 4000m below the surface, and is initiated by inadvertently chucking a bucket of soaking knives, forks and spoons over the side!

As the swell builds the autopilot struggles. We may need to resort to hand steering soon, which at the moment we only do for fun. I’Isme’s course is now set for St Lucia, so every mile we clear we are a mile closer to the finish line. Moreover our boat speed has been good (around 8 knots on average) so we really feel we are making progress. We have twice come close to 200 miles in 24 hours (199 at our last attempt). We are confident we will break this barrier. As we are a relatively dry boat (1 drink at 18:00) we need to achieve these little gaols to earn the occasional second drink!

The temperature continues to rise.