Last night we had the welcome party and prize-giving for the first leg of the rally. One of the prizes was awarded to the skipper, who before leaving Plymouth, made the most accurate estimate of their boat's arrival time across the finishing line in Bayona. We all left Plymouth at 10.30 am on Sunday and in our case we didn't arrive until 1.20 am on Thursday morning, so you will be impressed that Sarah took first prize as she was just 12 minutes out!

Sarah collects her prize from Santiago Perez of Monte Real Club de Yates, with Andrew Bishop of World Cruising Club behind.

Monday has been a day of finishing off a few of the jobs that seem to always need doing, including fixing the generator. Got it running OK again now, but suspect that I will have to replace the impellor, but will give it a run tomorrow whilst we are under way in the race and see if it overheats again.

We put on the bimini (a large sunshade over the cockpit) this afternoon which is something of a statement of intent! Certainly the weather has turned very hot now, but by all accounts it has been raining here for weeks, right up to the day before the rally arrived.

Tempted to break out the fishing gear for tomorrow’s trip to see what we can manage. The winds are forecast to be only 15 knots and directly behind us, which pretty much means that we will keeping up the rear of the fleet! I have a theory that if we start last, no-one gets to overtake us.