Another sleepless night for all as the swell and noise below continue to make sleep difficult. Think it is the fact your body is never still that makes you a tad weary and grateful for the morning. The night watch was busy as we actually saw boats. One scary moment was when the swell was high and the moon had just peeped out from some clouds. As it dappled on the water a flash of white caught my eye. It was another yacht without any lights on barely 100 – 200 yards away. Heading towards us on a northerly course, full sails and well heeled over. There was no sign of anyone on deck. If we hadn’t seen it we would have been T boned.

The pattern of sailing with the gib out on the spinnaker pole continues. We have had the kite up for a day and it was great however the gust of 20 -25 meant that it was overstretched. We are managing to maintain between 5.5 – 7 knots when the wind is around 15 knots and have finally managed to do more than 120 mile stop (feels like it!!) It can be a bit demoralising to think that some boats are going so fast they will be there by the weekend!

The planned haggis tea to celebrate St Andrews day did not happen as a lot of the food in the freezer is beginning to thaw and is therefore needing to be eaten. The odd flying fish that has landed on the deck is no bigger than the sardine Doug landed all those months ago – so our hunter gatherers continue to fail miserably on that front.

Robert is making full use of the satellite phone and it is really quite mind blowing to think that we are out here in the middle of the Atlantic functioning at a basic level of living while he is chatting to people in an office back in Scotland
It is also a great comfort to know that we can stay in touch so easily and when we watch the satellite move in the night sky realise what their function is.