Following a couple of complaints regarding the skipper's control over the laptop , I thought I'd make the most of the fact that he is fast asleep and give you a bit of a female perspective on things.

As many of you know, I was not at all keen to do the Atlantic crossing. For me it was a necessary evil, one that would be worth struggling through in order to justify a 6 month holiday in the Caribbean. As it turns out however my worst fears (namely sea sickness and sleep deprivation) have been largely unfounded. Sure, I felt a bit ropey when we first left Dartmouth; And, yes, lack of sleep was an issue when we were sailing double-handed. The worst was the crossing from Lisbon to Madeira when Sam and I did 3 hours on, 3 hours off for nearly 5 days, leaving us us feeling permanently hung over and incapable of ingesting either coffee or alcohol. A very curious state of affairs! More worryingly, we both started confusing dreams with reality. Sam even came on deck once to demand an explanation for why I was abandoning my watch. I had no idea what he was talking about!

However, with the extra muscle in the form of Will and Graham, all that is a distant memory. Not only do the 2 of them always jump up at any opportunity to help rig and trim sails, they also adhere to a very strict cooking and washing up schedule controlled by me, head of the galley. I once overheard a French woman saying, ‘Sailing is wonderful; men do all the domestic chores’. I couldn’t agree more! And I am now one of the lads, albeit the only clean-shaven one.

The downside, of course, is that space and privacy are at a premium. We all know what each one of us is doing at all times of day, showers (i.e. a bucket of sea water) are taken on deck, and there is definitely no point in trying to hide your drying underwear. There was some musing over lunch that the space available to us is similar to that in a prison cell. At least inmates have a TV and a proper shower!

Some say that when you sail you don’t live by the clock, you can really take your time. Now there is some truth in that, in particular in the way we can set the time to anything we like:  ‘Should we put our watches back 30 minutes so that the sun sets at 6.30 pm or should we leave it at 7 pm?’ (Summer Song Time (SST) is currently GMT -1). However, what I think they really meant is everything takes for ever. Taking something out of a locker can involve removing all cushions, sheets, and boards. For our water consumption, it takes 1 hour to make 5 litres. And try making a salad when everything flies off the counter as soon as you have chopped it up!

For all that, I think that if you could see us you would hardly pity us. Breakfast rolls into lunch, tea, nibbles, drinks and supper meaning you’ve hardly got a minute to read! Favourite pastimes include guessing our lat and long (an old time classic) and, new in the repertoire, coming up with a signature cocktail for happy hour. Talking of which, I better go, but there will be more soon!