Somehow we missed writing a blog yesterday- may have been due to a long sunbathing afternoon siesta

Yes it was a warm and bright day so long as you kept your thermals on

We have a story to tell but may not be able to agree which version wins the day

It concerns Ade’s patented fishing tackle c/o an article in the Practical Boat Owner circa the mid 1990s...

AT long last on Day 4 Ade decided to show us how to fish as we had not yet caught anything using our own tackle

Out of his secret supply bag came an amazing wooden bird with a wing span of 6 ft, no Ade, 1 ft, unlikely Mike, I think 7 inches

You know how fishermen are prone to exaggerate- well Ade exaggerates the size of his tackle, as it were, ooh ahh Mrs...(think Franky Howard is  on board)

It was ceremonially unwound and launched and Ade entrusted it to his crew mate Mike.

That may have been his first mistake

Anyway, within 20 mins we lost the whole caboodle, hook , line and sinker! For the first time of my life i have used that phrase literally J

The big question and debate is how? What happened? Did we catch the biggest fish ever that ripped the line asunder... or... did he forget to tie it on???

We might never know

We caught up with a fellow transatlantic yacht yesterday evening and overhauled it during the dark having failed to raise the crew on vhf.

Today we have had a mixture of sunshine and grey cloud but we have maintained good speeds though out. Day 1 was 168.5M, day 2 was 174.5M, day 3 was 170M, today was 156.8M so it was a gentler night as we roll along on the northerly band of a high pressure westerly (132mb now)

Fresh fruit salad for pud this lunchtime to keep the scurvy at bay. Now I need chocolate! We have some rich tea biscuits but have agreed that they are entirely onomatopoeic, being neither rich nor having any Tea in them.

More freshly frozen tuna tonight courtesy of the Ruskies.

Cuisine standards are exceptional. For once there is no competition but a genuine appreciation of efforts made and the quality of each dish, often cooked and served up at an angle of some 30 degrees.

We even had a bottle of bubbles last night to celebrate the half way point. It is now count down time.

We are discussing whether to stop off at the Scillies or sail straight for start Point and round the corner to Dartmouth- which will bring us in up to a day earlier. If so we have just  541M to go and at this pace it could take 82hrs- 3 days 10 hrs

All is well

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