We've now had two weeks at sea and have just come through a fairly frustrating weekend wind and weather wise. Whoever said that the sun always shines in the Caribbean was wrong, it's been more like an English autumn day here: grey, constant drizzle and not as much wind as we'd have liked.

The good news is that whilst the rain hasn't yet stopped, the wind has come round slightly in our favour and with our Parasailor up and flying (now with the addition of a couple of home made patches after we sustained a few minor rips from the rigging) we have made better progress today. To maximise our speed we have taken the decision to fly the Parasailor through the night and hope we avoid the worst of any squalls.

The biggest excitement, if you can call it that, came at about 1:30AM this morning. Gary and Neil on watch and a boat spotted on the starboard side. Thanks to our onboard AIS system (essentially a tracking device that picks up any other AIS enabled boats) they were able to identify its course (straight towards us) and speed. Judging distances on land at night is difficult enough, at sea with the waves in the way and rain reducing visibility distances it becomes an almost impossible challenge. The rest of the crew were awoken therefore by the sound of shouting on deck - turns out that the other yacht (also part of the ARC) had continued to sail straight towards us forcing us to drastically alter course with them about 30 feet away. We believe that their entire crew had been asleep (whether deliberately or not we don't know), but thankfully any contact was avoided and having clearly woken up they then altered their course and slipped off into the rain. Crazy though that with an whole ocean to play in they come within spitting distance of us!

The rain eased this afternoon just in time for us to catch a fish - a real treat having not hooked one for most of the week and enjoy crew drinks on deck to celebrate crossing the 2000 mile mark. We now have 900 miles to go and if we can achieve our aim of 6.5 knots an hour for the remainder of the distance will arrive in St Lucia late on Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for all news from home and festive emails - keeps us smiling!

Canapesia