To add to our recent (admittedly self-inflicted) problems and challenges, the latest Grib weather file now suggests we are set for an ‘interesting’ approach to England with ominous winds predicted to hit us. Just to get us acclimatized to UK weather, we haven’t seen the sun for days and it’s been damp, grey and murky – though windy from the right direction, meaning we are averaging around seven knots. The fog forced us inside again on Saturday and we passed a surreal couple of hours watching Madonna sing and sort of act her way through Evita.

Another miserable day followed on Sunday and Ricardo was actually reduced to counting down in tenths of miles – not really a crowd pleaser as we were still looking at 700 miles to go at the time. He then further disgraced himself by secretly deciding during one of his frequent moments of extreme boredom to lock the tilting oven (because apparently things shouldn’t move on a boat), which meant that the cup of juice I rested on the hob assuming it would stay level ended up all over me and most of the inside of the cabin. I suppose it was some compensation that in his search for another activity to pass the time, he mended the forepeak blind which has pretty much been broken since we bought the boat.

The food situation is not helping – none of us ever want to see a cookie again or eat chips for breakfast, and the best you can say about motor-warmed ration packs is they are edible and calorific. Tuna salad at 6pm is the culinary highpoint of each day and Ricardo is using his creative powers to their utmost. Not that there is much scope for imagination. Today, for example, the ‘surprise’ is that he may leave out the pickles. We are all getting plenty of reading done, in between naps, with Barra insisting on reading the 13-book Patrick O’Brian series in random order just to make it more interesting.

Meanwhile, Frank the Plank, a random piece of pine which was attached to the dock at St John’s but is now attached to our guard rails, almost justified his passage to England when the guys decided to cut off a piece to try to solve the problem of the chafing halyard. Frank didn’t prove up to the task, however, although, knowing Ricardo, I guarantee he will find another use for him just to prove a point after he insisted on bringing him along.

Jules