Well here we go again in increasing rolling seas I will try to make some sensibly comments.
From the sailing point of view the strategy holds good with us moving ever up the field, but please don't expect this to continue much longer, when the fleet nears St Lucia then we will all have the same wind patterns unless something changes over the next few days. That is the one thing that continually changes the wind direction so always needing to trim sales etc. Yesterday was relatively quiet despite a jib sheet breaking at 1.30 am so repairs are needed later today. In raising the spinnaker this morning George was hit by gust of wind which sent him six feet in the air with resultant rope burns to fingers etc. First aid administered and I'm sure in a couple of days time he will be back to normal.
We think we are upto 55th in the fleet and 7th within our class so were fairly pleased with progress.
Food has been entertaining to say the least, the rush to cook thawing meats mean we are quite often cooking two days ahead . Last nights spag bog had a special ingredient, exploding pressure cookers so most of meal scraped off surrounding surfaces, ceilings and floor still didn't detract from the taste and we're all still alive. How about fresh bread as well in the middle of the Atlantic, not bad life on Elphin 2
At last a whale sighting, yesterday afternoon just passed within 100 metres of the boat going in the opposite direction.
By this evening we hope to have less than a thousand miles to go and should start to see some other yacths, strange that in the last 7 days we have only seen 3/4 other vessels of any description.
Everybody in good spirits but also looking forward to seeing land in 7 or 8 days time.
Best wishes from all the crew.