June 17th 1930 GMT

32 15N 044 27W

Another sunny day but we’re chasing the wind as a high pressure cell builds to the NE, even though we managed 147 nm in the last 24 hours.

At about midnight GMT last night I heard a sort of deep rumbling and thought there must be a ship I couldn’t see. I was very surprised to look to the south and see a rocket of some kind arching fast and steeply up into the sky. It had a big red tail and was leaving a huge vapour trail across the sky. It very quickly disappeared as it passed out of the atmosphere. Quite a spectacle. Joe informed me this morning that a space tex rocket was due to launch from Cape Canavral (excuse spelling)24 hours earlier so we can only assume it was delayed by 24 hours.

Morning brought good sailing although the wind is dropping as I write and Chris is about to send for a new weather grib file so fingers crossed for a bit of breeze.

All well on board.