June 13th 1500 GMT

41 48N 023 36W

Another pretty slow 24 hour run by our usual standards but quite acceptable in the prevailing light wind conditions. Last night was damp and foggy again and we spent most of the time motor sailing. The wind picked up around dawn for a couple of hours and then died again. When Fi went to start the engine at 0800 it was dead. Every sailor’s nightmare in light wine conditions. Anyway, fortunately the wind filled in and we set off at a good rate and have been sailing ever since – even touching 6 knots on occasion. I eventually traced the engine fault to a broken wire on the starter motor relay. A screw driver across the contacts started the engine in quite a dramatic way but the awkward access made this a bit impractical so we fitted a hot wire to the engine start battery and that worked fine being operable from just inside the port cockpit locker lid. Another triumph of luck and ingenuity – such is life at sea. Apart from that we miss the sunshine and wearing woollies at night has become the norm. 854 nm to run to Kinsale in southern Ireland. All well on board, especially having Owen our Sir Robin lookalike on the helm.