Dear Readers

No change in the sleeping patterns of the crew I have to say. Gruchy is maintaining his 8 hours sleep during the day and what he gets at night is a bonus. Bearing in mind we have nights of 12 hours his bonus tends to be generous. The call is “has anyone seen Charlie today?”

Yesterday’s highlight was the sight of a gannet catching a flying fish, both on the wing, very impressive aeronautics from the gannet.

Reserve water has been moved to the main tank which has allowed us another fresh water shower, something to be treasured after 17 days at sea. The wet wipes can only do so much.

There was a late change to the Owner’s paella today after a veterinary inspection condemned the frozen prawns to the sea. Plan B paella included chorizo, tuna and black olives, all a worthy substitute.

Sadly you may have noticed a gradual slip in our position on the leader board. All of the boats in our vicinity are significantly longer than us and therefore simply travel faster than we do in these downwind conditions. In spite of hitting over 10 knots on occasions and regularly seeing 9 we cannot do much about improving our standing.

Our thoughts are turning to our arrival in St Lucia and specifically what we will wear to cross the finish line. Now readers we have 3 choices of polo shirt, navy blue bearing the logo “Has anyone seen America?", a rather gaudy yellow with thin blue horizontal stripes (happily thin enough not to emphasize the waistlines of the crew) or a white one with ARC 25 logo. The choice is yours.

Just passed the 500 miles to go mark and continuing to make speedy progress.

Regards

The Owner again.