Hello again.

We are all honoured to have been joined aboard by HRH Liz, a 10 inch statuette . Liz’s handbag features a solar panel which generates a Royal wave. Liz will be making the circumnavigation so it’s inevitable that you will be hearing lots about her exploits in the months and years ahead.

We are now some 470 nm south west of Lanzarote. Come early afternoon we’ll be half way through our passage down to Cape Verde. We are all looking forward to seeing what the place is like and there’s now talk about the first cold beer – funny that… Yesterday morning we all wrote down our estimated ETA on a piece of paper and gave them to Paul. The person furthest away from the actual arrival time will buy the first round. Benn is most optimistic (07.30 Thu) and Paul M the least (02.35 Fri) so the beers will be on one of them. We have a super navigation system on board which currently shows an ETA of 3 days but the amount of hours varies with each tiny change in boat speed. With 500 n. miles to go, it’s a matter of watching this space.

With winds fairly much behind us but seas rolling in from the starboard aft quarter it remains a fairly rock and roll life afloat as we cork-screw around. That said, other than moving about, it’s all fairly comfortable and everyone is beginning to get some sleep. The seas have been fairly big at times so it makes it all just that little more exciting. Saturday developed into quite a grey cloudy day with big seas, yesterday was a mix of sun and occasional squalls. But the moon at night is bright and it’s great sitting on watch and being able to see everything around you. And we’ve seen loads more dolphins!

Everyone is happy and in great spirits. It’s a really good cohesive blend of people who all bring something to the party. We are having fun but keeping safe.

More news from de Talulahrubians very soon.