Marina Rubicon (again!). Yesterday proved to be a very testing day. We set off from the marina and the ever faithful north easterlies were blowing from the south westerlies and so we decided to put the auto-pilot on to test it after it had been repaired only to discover that it was worse than it had been before. The decision was made to return to Rubicon and the boatyard staff were as good as gold as they came out on Sea Spray and sorted out the problem, which turned out to be another one that had developed coincidentally. Moods were very low last night but after completing a few jobs this morning and getting ready to watch the Wales v Fiji match shortly, things are buoyant again.

The plan tomorrow then, is to set sail directly to the Cape Verde islands which are about 900 miles away and I think we have made the mental adjustment to cope with the longer sea passages we are about to undertake.

Let’s hope Wales win!