Yesterday we had squalls all day but as the sun set in the west, as it seems to do each evening, the heavens cleared and we had a fantastic clear sky. I was on the 6pm to 9pm watch and sat in wonder watching the heavens. During the short period of dark and the end of my watch I managed to spot four satellites moving across the sky at incredible speed and a couple of 'shooting stars'. It was really quite magnificent as there was no moon.

During my radio sked with hams back in Cape Town we had a few dolphins come and visit us. Shaheda, Shaun and Terry watched them from the deck whilst I could see the occasional one swimming along in our wake. When we are off the Brazilian coast, we should have a lot more visits by these cleaver and fascinating mammals who tend to stay with the boat for long periods when they see us humans appreciating them from the deck. If they do not see us, they tend to disappear quite quickly.

Last night I received an SMS from Dave, the skipper of the 46' ahead of us. They are 650 nm ahead of us now and Dave reports very light winds from the east. He expects to get to Tortola on the 20th of December. I have sent an SMS to Richard, the skipper of the 46' a week or so behind us, but have received no reply as yet. He may have his satellite phone switched off, in which case he will not receive my message.

Dinner tonight is 'Fish Florentine' from the kitchen of head chef 'Terry the Ship Spotter'. He seems pretty confident in how to prepare and cook the dish so we drool at the prospect in anticipation. A full report will be posted here tomorrow for Kerry and other interested parties.

During my travels I have been collecting music at various stops and keeping it on my computer for loading onto my iPod. My music 'library' now contains 650 CD's of all genre of music and I have created different play lists which I can load onto my iPod, depending on my mood and what type of music I want to listen to. The little player is really a wonderful system and worth every cent spent on it. I still have about 500 CD's of music on a portable hard drive which I will have to sort and load onto the computer when I get home.

As we scoot along, under spinnaker, at just over six knots in an easterly breeze, I, together with Terry, Shaheda and Shaun, bid you well until the next blog report - John.