Day 7

Winds pretty constant again most of the day – around 15 knots so we upped the speed to 7 – 8 knots.  We’ve had a helpful current all the way between 0.5 - 1 knot. It comes and goes a bit but has generally given us a big boost, probably knocking a day off the trip.  Pretty grey day – the world is in monochrome - but making great progress – we are only 105m from the Bishop and now plan to be in Plymouth on Thursday afternoon – fantastic!  It even looks like we will be in sync with the tides around the Lizard on Thursday morning.

Saw very large pod of striped (we think) dolphins jumping and splashing around in a big area – we reckon they were herding fish.  Had another smaller pod of common bottlenose riding the waves beside us then later in the evening a large whale – not sure what type but the blow looked too big for a pilot whale.  We’re now on the continental shelf so hope to see more today.  Have had a number of French fishing boats on the AIS and a few more cargo ships but only one of them we had to call up.  Had a few more fulmars and one gannet (first one we’ve seen for a good while!)

Position 27 July 06.30 GMT: 049:35:314N 009:06:655W

24 hour distance:  182 miles