The night is yet young. The rest of the world lies in slumber. A blanket of overbearing clouds hangs overhead. The new moon casts a dark shadow over stirring seas. The interminable howling of 40 knot winds and roaring of the ocean dim the senses. Spray reduces bodies barely a metre away to barely distinguishable silhouettes. Only the glow from angry bio-luminescent plankton offers a clue to that life exists outside our vessel. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the North Atlantic.

As the intrepid white watch forges their way through Mother Nature’s fury, the crew experiences its first taste of what extreme sailing truly has to offer. This, however, has done nothing to dampen morale. Humour has now reached all new lows.

During the last 48 hours, there has been enough wildlife spotting to produce an episode of The Blue Planet. Sightings include many schools of dolphins, pilot whales and even the distant sighting of a humpback whale.

Having completed the last 2 days on watch, white watch now turns its efforts down below to boosting crew morale with hearty food and insufferable humour.

Rachel, Dave, Ram & Khush