Supper last night of chicken salad still included fresh lettuce and tomato (well done K&B on the fresh veg preservation). We start our evenings with a happy hour of music, snacks and soft drinks. Just practicing for when we have some rum to put in the Coke! This gives us all a chance to unwind after another arduous day on the water.

With little notice we put in the long-awaited gybe last night, two days ahead of schedule. We had a lovely wind shift between supper and bed time (8pm, the start of watches) and as the wind gods gave us a gift of a near perfect course for the night we took advantage. Just after we finished the gybe, the wind suddenly got up so back we went to put in a reef in the main. We had a reasonably fast if slightly bouncy night running pretty much due west. We usually set the course on the Wind Pilot and only adjust it if the wind direction alters significantly. The course has now gone slightly north this morning, so we may need to think again. Gybing with a prevented main and a poled-out jib is enough of a palaver not to want to do it too often.

A fine sunrise brought us to several new milestones: over 2,000 miles run and less than 1,000 miles to go. The nearest land is still South America (French Guyana). We are looking forward to steak tonight to celebrate progress. This is the last of the fresh meat �" huge rib-eyes, frozen and vacuum packed in Las Palmas, and stored in the bottom of the fridge.

The weather for the next few days is looking reasonable, but there is a big calm patch coming filling in east of the Windward Islands in about five days. We all agree it would be really bad to get close enough to smell the rum punch and get becalmed, so we are really focused on keeping Barracuda moving as best we can to try to stay ahead of it.

Ship’s time was democratically put back an hour this morning, after we noted that sunrise happened after the end of the sunrise watch. It was either that or re-name the watch.

Fishing continues to be pretty dismal. A good job we are not relying on the crew’s catch to supplement a meagre diet. But today we have launched a new and rather more expensive lure, so we will see what that brings.

Barracuda is currently sailing along with the bimini up for sun shade, a table cloth stretched over and clipped on the port side for more sun protection in the cockpit and laundry hanging on the rails to dry â€�" glad there is no one around to see us. On that point we have seen three boats near us or on AIS in the last 24 hours â€�" it’s beginning to feel crowded.

Distance run in the last 24 hours: 138 nautical miles

Cumulative distance run since ARC start: 2,068 nautical miles