Position: 16:37.23N 40:44.50W

With just 1150 nm to go to Barbados the jolly Pinball is well over the half way mark from Islas Canarias, and making good progress. At this rate we could be there by around the 18^th, but often the winds tend to die off a bit in the latter stages so probably not. This morning saw more showers and squally winds, and a very confused sea with three separate swells coming from three directions - NE, E and SE. So PW has been corkscrewing around a treat, and to see us staggering around the cabin ‘is like watching a pair of drunks’ as Alfie put it.

Having eaten the first two bricks, it was time to make more and this time the bread only got 35 minutes in the oven and is looking ok if a bit Germanic still. Unfortunately the cooking time over ran into dinner cooking time and this all combined nicely with a manic peiod of corkscrewing by PW which led to both loaves ending up in the sink and Alfie trying to rescue them with bare hands.

The constant motion can be pretty wearing and so the best solution is to go up on deck and sit in the cockpit where life is pleasant and you can see the roly bits coming in. So that’s what we do, pretty well all day apart from cooking times and catch up on sleep times. Today we’ve spotted a lot of floating weed - which manages to stay in long lines stretching three or four hundred metres - and we wondered how it manages to stay together like this in the middle of an ocean. And there’s been a seabird, possibly a tern, circling us for a while.

Last night I was on watch and suddenly saw a navigation light behind us. Odd! It looked like a mast top light of a yacht but was white instead of the usual red or green depending on which side you’re looking at. I was very excited by this and switched on the radio in case they wanted a chat, then realised that our lights weren’t on so sorted that. But half an hour later it disappeared so don’t know what happened there. When I told Alfie he said ’was it a star?’ Of course not, I said. (does he think I’m an idiot?) Well, I suppose it could have been.. So I can’t claim it as something I’ve seen.

Dark now, my turn to be up on deck..