However it is now day 5 (that is hard to believe). We have had a couple of kinder days in terms of both weather and sea state and are a much refreshed crew. Sleeping is interesting as although you sleep you are conscious of being tossed about the bunk. Brace is the main word and focus. We have all taken to shouting to each other ‘hold on – it’s a biggie’. We have only seen a couple of cargo vessels in the last 4 days.

Today is a bit rough and we are bouncing about a lot. Breakfast was to be cereal and eggs. I even took orders for the type of egg. Suffice to say 2 went down the sink on cracking them open, another 2 came flying out of the microwave and when I went in to the hold to get more out found 3 broken and 4 with chips in them. All in all an expensive morning on the egg front! Food is likely to be in short supply today unless the swell eases.

Everyone is starting to feel better and gain their sealegs. Liz M’s patches have been great and she is doing really well managing to stay below for long periods of time. Robert has a cast iron stomach and is never unwell so he’s been doing well in the galley too. John and I are getting there. John was pretty crummy for the first 2 nights but picked up yesterday for which I was really relieved..

Today we have a lot of cloud but the air is beginning to warm up as we get further south. Night watches are really chilly between 2 and 6 a.m. The other thing we are taking bad with is the number of hours that it is dark. It is dark by 7.00 and stays that way till 7.00 a.m. so a full 12 hours of dark watches is quite challenging..

We are in daily contact with other ARC boats and seem to be holding our own progress wise. Hope to top 500 by teatime. It’s ‘thanksgiving day’ so may have to resort to popcorn and hot dogs to celebrate with our America crews. (That doesn;t involve a lot of cooking!!!) Robert has also managed to do some proper work via the sat phone !

Today John found a fish (note not caught) It was a real tiddler not even sardine size Doug! We ate the frozen fish last night and I reckon the rest will come out of tins at this rate. We also had a visit from a pod of dolphins. There were maw, paw and several wains. One gave us a high fly display leaping up almost like a salmon trying to get upriver. It cheered our spirits no end.

The weather is due to remain pretty stable for the next few days and by then we should be ready to alter course. So far so good

We have had one helluva night in a virtual flat calm. The sheets flapped, the boom and mast creaked and groaned and the swell flopped us around like a wet kipper stranded at the Fifee Pier. We had a mast light to watch for most of the night though so that was a good distraction. However no one slept when we went off watch so we are a tad weary today. It was actually a relief to get back up deck away from the noises. The night sailing is great as the moon is almost full and is currently lighting our way. (No phosphoresence though Mags!)