Position 30:53.549N 11:31.601W

It is 4am on Wednesday and I have just started my three hour watch.

The watch system is working brilliantly, it is bliss to have six hours sleep in one stretch at night and, with the watches continuing throughout the day, we all enjoy the luxury of an afternoon nap ( though not at the same time !).

Yesterday we sailed happily all day until the wind died around 5pm when we switched back to motoring.

Despite the forecast of light variable winds from behind we experienced 18 knots (force 4) on the nose all day, we put in some long tacks and it was great to be sailing.

We saw a huge whale blowing out spurts of air about 50 metres away and we were also joined by lots of dolphins.

The dolphins were very excited to see us and jumped right out of the water as they swam towards us, they played at the bow until they were tired when they peeled off one by one.

Lot’s of other yachts in the fleet have caught Tuna and Mahi Mahi (Dorado) and the evening radio net was busy with boats swapping stories and recipes. We lost one of our lures today but no fish so we settled for Paul’s chicken green thai curry – yummy.

After having our bottom cleaned again in Gibralter we are gliding along at good speeds of around 8 knots and our ETA  is very early Thurs morning, ahead of schedule.

Since the support team don’t arrive until late morning we will probably ‘potter’ a bit tomorrow and try some fishing at slower speed so that we arrive in Lanzarote in the day light with a friendly face on the quay to take our lines and arrange our berthing.

That said – the wind is now sure to bust our plan and blow us there at full speed – where are the brakes ?