The sun has set on day 6 and we find ourselves stretching our lead in our class with a 50 mile lead over the Danish Elan Frigg. We are being forced further north to avoid a wind hole and will have difficult times skirting it's northern borders before we can head southwest on Monday. There are no boats visible now, although we know there are a brace of bigger boats in our area. A new target has appeared, Lucky Lady, a smaller Dufour 38 in a different division that is ahead by 40 miles, so we have a job to catch and pass him. The bulk of the fleet are on the southern route where the trade winds are very fluky - we exchanged emails with another Danish boat on this route who are only averaging 100 miles per day (we are doing 160-180). Getting weather via satellite is a significant advantage, helping us choose the windier and faster path.
Life on board is very pleasant: we are all getting along with each other and eating well as Rigs and Rob produce fantastic meals. We are getting into the watch routine and grabbing sleep during the day when we can to catch up. We hand steer during the day, and revert to the autopilot at night, and are keeping surprising busy. We've just had our second beer of the trip as drinking doesn't fit, especially if there is an emergency. No fishing happening as it's too rough, so no tales of toothy predators as yet.
From Doug with captain Rigs, chef Rob and potential fisherman Adrian.