Day 19 1200 Friday 11th December

We now have a dilemma.

We’re only about 100 miles from the finish and we do that in about 16 hours. That means arriving at 4 in the morning when it’s still dark. We could finish in the dark – many of the racing boats do just that. But we all want to arrive in the light.

Problem – boats don’t have brakes and with a strong following wind we can’t slow down enough. We’ve rolled away the headsail but we’re still going too fast. If we put the mainsail away as well the rolling motion will get unbearable. It’s pretty difficult to live with as it is. The swell has now had the full width of the Atlantic to build up and it’s hitting us on the quarter.

Come on skipper think of something.

Meanwhile the anticipation is building. The courtesy flag of St Lucia has been raised in expectation of the arrival. The crew want “a last night on the Atlantic party.”

You can smell the land – you can smell the excitement – you can smell the skipper.

That reminds me. – I’d better go have a shower and dig out a clean shirt for the arrival. I wonder if it will be as emotional as the start.

I wonder who will be the first to see land. We tried hoisting a video camera to the top of the mast to see if it could see land but all we got was shots of the boat beneath.

That’s all for today – lots to do and still got to join the party.