June 18th 1715 GMT

33 19N 042 04W

The failing breeze at beer o clock yesterday revitalised itself as the evening wore on and we resorted to the luxury of hand steering to get the best speed and course. By the time I came on watch at 0200 this morning we were creaming along at 7.5 knots, the moon was almost full and Maria said it was like driving a rally car as she surged through the waves with a big smile on her face. We were able to resort to the Monitor driving for Joe’s solo 0500 – 0630 watch and we’ve been making fine progress ever since covering 159 nm in the last 24 hours. With 724 nm to go we’re still expecting the Azores high to move over us and kill the wind in the next day or so but for now  we’re making haste while the sun shines and the breeze holds. All well on board. No fish, no rockets.