Dear all,

Today was a day to celebrate: we just passed the half way point of our Atlantic crossing at 1,350 miles on each side this evening at about 20h00 UTC. We dressed up and got invited to the Captain’s table with very nice goose liver, fried potatoes and wine. Matthieu has still no knowledge of the fact that some of our competitors are close to the finish line with expected ETA tomorrow night, so please make no reference to that in any comment. Officially, we have increased our lead if anything.

On the fishing front, we caught our second mai mai today and ate delicious sashimis apart from Come who decided that fishes are friends and not food. We respected his views and ate his portion with great satisfaction. A third one was almost on board when it suddenly managed to escape meters away from meeting its fate: lucky bugger as we, sailors, like to say.

Today was also the best day on our log with 170 miles in 24 hours. We have been non stop with the gennaker for over 36 hours with a pretty consistent Easterly wind at 15-20 knots, with gusts at 25. A few squalls are now predicted on the second half of the crossing but nothing too bad according to the weather forecast. With decreasing wind predictions, spinnaker may be back in business as soon as tomorrow.

As we get into a routine, we have  far more time to read, play and sleep. On the playing side, Matthieu easily won a music competition organized by Philippe where we had to give the author and name of the album by just listening to the introduction. The quality of the music on board is really good and it is a very nice feeling to surf at over 13 knots with a remix of the Clash in the background. Poker has also been on the agenda, classical and Texas Hold ‘em versions and the boat has changed hand quite a few times already.

So, all is good in the big blue world. Water temperature is at 27 degrees and night temperatures are clearly getting warmer.

Happy 1^st December from the tropicalised Noeluna crew