21 24.94N 047 52.38W

Distance to go: 890nm

Nicholas really has a great flare for cooking, we've all shared the duties but he's been there all the way managing the whole food thing onboard, and he's produced some fantastic dishes and can legitimately claim some good assists. However he has developed an obsession with Dark Chocolate and Digestive biscuits. It's quite funny because all day you see Nic eating heathy fruit and he's keeping up a good exercise regime, but as soon as the crew have disappeared he raids the chocolate and goodies. Just the other day during lunch we were all sat round the table and he ask's "has anyone else had any of the dark chocolate?" everyone sitting replied "what dark chocolate" it was only then did Nic realise he'd eaten it all by himself, none of us had even seen it!

We've been sailing now with the same watches, 2 hours on and then 6 hours off, same times of day for everyone, every day, since we left Spain nearly 3 weeks ago. Andy still gets confused as to what time he is due on watch! He's fine during the night because Nic is before him, so he's woken 10 minutes before his watch begins. But during the day he's lost! He's had his head firmly into the Almanac and Sight Correction Tables, trying to work out where we are using the Sextant. 10 out of 10 for effort, and I think he's really got his head around things and is successfully plotting our course using the old traditional method. He must be using up lot's of calories with all the calculations as the snacks have taken a real hit. I think it's safe to say Andy has had his fair share of motivational snacks so far on this trip, and it was game over for the Monster Munch once he saw those! Yes they really do still make "Monster Munch", yes the bags are smaller like everything else, but you can buy them in Morrisons in Gibraltar.

Me, well I'm writing this blog so I'll leave it for others to comment on my sailing habits. I will happily admit that I've had my good share of the snacks too!

Everyone is getting on very well and the system is working fine. I think moral is high and helped by the fact that we've had such good sailing conditions. We ran the engines for a few hours last night as the the wind went fully round from SE - S - SW - W - NW and is now 15/20 knots from the NE. We are again making great ground sailing at 9/10 knots SOG and the forecast is predicting similar winds until we arrive in St Maarten, hopefully on Monday.

Considering the small amount of fishing we've done, it's been incredible. We'll put the rods out again today and see what happens, we are however trucking along and may be going a little fast for the average fish, we'll see.

Lovely sunrise this morning.