July 17th 1430 GMT

47 41N 015 57W

A sunny day at last, horizon to horizon in fact, after a consequently really cold night – runny nose, double thermals, woolly hats, the works in fact and we’re starting to miss the tropics. The moon was nearly full and we saw the international space station pass over twice. At dawn I got my first star sights on Vega and Capella which computed to 2 nm from our gps position – so that was a satisfying reassurance. Winds on the other hand are still light and on the nose, so motor sailing since last night. A few whale and dolphin sightings and at lunch time today we picked up Falmouth coastguard on vhf 400 nm away. Even more amazingly I called for a radio check and got a clear reply – so that has got to be verging on a vhf comms record for distance. The amount of traffic has also gradually increased with the latest being China Progress, a large bulk carrier, which passed us 2 nm to starboard doing 11 knots. All well on board.