Hot Stuff - 16:59.911n 28:00.22W

We continue. Its now a bit of a race against against the weather. Not the bad kind as in the blowy type but more the 'no wind' variety. We have been heading West South and West south West to try and get between the doldrums which are still present mid Atlantic. The new weather behind from the Verde Islands will appear to be spreading west towards us. I suspect at the,  moment we need to make 350 NM in the next 48 hrs to avoid the worst thing NO WIND. So the race is on. Hopefully it wont continue to chase us but we will have to look at tomorrows forecast.

Yesterday we said a sad farewell to our orange friend. It was sad in many ways. The bucket has been used for showers, washing up and much more but as the swell picked us up and dropped it unbalanced the normally stable Gazelle that is Nick falling on the rail and loosing the bucket. It was sad we lost it but also we are being so careful not to leave any waste behind taking all our rubbish behind. If it hits the currents maybe we will see it there? Nick also has a new name today. He is Beardy Cap face. He has embraced a baseball cap bought in the
Canaries and it rather suits him and a scruffy beard that also seems to suit in a weird way. Sorry Beccy new man coming home to you soon!

Nothing too major to fix today, Just bleeding the water maker as the pump seemed to struggle with a air blockage. With the inlet quite high on the Starboard side we all sat on the rail to keep it under water as we went along under kite.

The chase is on. We believe that the next boat in the racing fleet is only a few miles ahead although further south and likely in better air. So we are seeing what we can do to chase them down. Today we had ARC sunset Vodka cocktails shandy to help lighten the boat a bit. Only 15 cases to go!

Darren looked a bit like old widow twanky washing his underwear on the rail earlier but he is almost certainly the better smelling of us all at the moment! Jack had a slept on the fore and side deck for several hours using the shade from the sails to make it more comfortable but there is little escape from the sun when its out.... Which is pretty much all the time!

I am currently looking forward to Darrens next instalment as he has been planning it for a while!

C