Good morning world,

It’s my turn (Rob) to write the blog.

The latest:

So last night the wind built to 24 knots with a big following sea. We were running under poled out large headsail and full main when the pilot could not cope so we broached. We quickly got a hold of it, and reduced canvas. 1 Reef and some furls in the headsail settled her down. It meant dad lost some of his off watch, but I gave him the extra from one of mine. Always nice to come down and find dad snoring – it means he is sleeping well and not even the collision alarms will wake him!

Early morning on Dad’s watch a squid landed on the deck, he kept it for me to see and then after a photo or two I returned the squid to its home, perfectly in line with our fishing line to try and tempt the tuna .. alas my plan did not work and we still have not caught a fish.

The traffic is increasing, the noise on C16 is also becoming more prevalent. We are close to one of our competitors (Jac Y Do) who we believe to be in class 2 or 3 – so we must be doing ok!

Just under 400 NM to run now, double headsail reaching in 18 knots of breeze is propelling us towards the finish. The computers tell us at this rate we will finish in the middle of the night Tuesday into Wednesday.

Now its time for breakfast but before I go I thought I would mention some culinary highlights:

Haribo – an absolute essential on night watches

Fruit cake – very nice Mary!

Ginger Biscuits – do you want some biscuit with your ginger? Lovely.

Muffins – lasted around 24 hrs.. should have got some more

Chocolate (Yes Kim, Finn, Otto – lots of it and no little monkey I have to share it with.. all for me and dad!)

Azorean Tea (much better than the decaf rubbish in one of the Tupperware’s)

Breakfast time now if it does not fly off the stove (scrambled eggs and bacon), before blasting into the western approaches.

Ciao for now,

Rob & Tim