Time   1411 UTC

Position   37:53N18:37W

Distance Travelled   495 miles

Distance to Gibralter   620 miles

Weather    Overcast

 

Great wind all last night and this morning but has now decreased a little. Still making 5.5 knots.

No sea life

No bird life

No traffic for 36 hours

 

Today was washing day.

First ourselves yes including James without coaxing. Probably was the fact that all crew were taking the long road round him that indicated to him that a wash was necessary!

 

Then the dirty clothes.

The boat is festooned with various varieties of men’s knickers. (You can tell a lot about a person by the knickers he wears)

 

Today we got the mizen staysail up and increased our speed by 1.5 knots. What a magnificent image. we were getting 7.5 knots before the wind decreased.

 

We are having trouble with the autopilot which has a mind of it’s own. Sometimes it switches to standby and other times it heads off suddenly in a different direction. Would appreciate advise from any of you technical people out there.

 

Breakfast    Porridge with honey bananas dried fruit. James nothing. still sleeping after night watch

Lunch          Chicken soup. It was a bugger to kill! Bread cheese chorizo sausage ham

Pasta with tuna and other unidentifiable things cooked by chef James. That the real reason he missed breakfast this morning. Too tired after his hard efforts.Time taken to prepare 2.5 hours The tuna made him feel ill and he had to go up on deck often. Didn’t stop him eating it however.

Tomorrow is a bread baking day by chef James so should have something interesting to report on tomorrows blog!