Day 8 – Noon 26^th May to Noon 27^th May

You know what? This game is still in play. The conveyor belt heading east is not an easy ride. It’s certainly making us work hard for our distance gained. It’s now throwing all sorts of horrible weather at us and we’ve spent the last 24 hours running downwind in a gale. Very little sail area but we’ve still managed to make a respectable 114 miles in the right direction. The crew have now got used to the motion and handling the boat in the big seas. We’re doing 3 hours on and 3 hours off with the on watch pair taking half hour turns at the helm. So far this system is working well but the weather is continuing to play games and the forecast promises two more gales and poor weather until 30^th May. We can cope but it would be nice to sail in the sunshine again.

We record a log every 3 hour period which includes barometric pressure. For 23 periods in a row the pressure continued to fall relentlessly. But for the last three periods the pressure has stabilised and the last reading finally showed a small increase. Fingers crossed the forecast is wrong this time – it has been already on several occasions this trip.

And even if the forecast is right we have a new secret weapon. Enter Biggles. We can’t go wrong with this all British hero at the helm!

So what other news? As day 8 ends we have had half of the 16 days allotted time to cover the 1800 miles to the Azores. The log shows we still have 960 miles to go so we’re only about 60 behind the pace. Still all to play for. We should pass the half way point tomorrow and then the distance to the nearest land starts decreasing.

Tonight we had tinned chicken. Fortunately Graham used so much West Indian pepper sauce that we couldn’t taste the pressed fowl at all. He’s doing a great job on keeping us all fed. Thanks mate.

Paul - Peejay