I will write this but I honestly have no idea if I will ever be able to send it. My sat phone is playing up in a big way and that is probably the end of all my comms for the rest of the race. Gutted! No pissed of you spend �1000 on a ruggadized phone and it stops working when it get a little damp in boat. - Damp , its not been anywhere near a wave or water.

Last night and today have definitely been the toughest for me. It was very windy from the east about 30 -35 knot last night and what turned out to be a fantastic day or flying down waves and charging towards the banks soon turned into a survival / lets looks after the boat mode. I went the reefs 1,2 3, and then made the decision to drop the main altogether as it just kept twisting me into the wind when caught by a way. I thoughts were I would rather go slower but in a right direction than do 100 miles an hours in a zigzags. This tied in nicely with a text from my dad saying 'cruise it will and you will make it'

It was horrible rolling all over the place for the third night in a row I have only had an hour or two' sleep. I think I have worked out the screws that came out of the win gen on the first night might have actually fallen out on the trip up from Southampton and these are the reason for this god for saken vibration. No joke, if HSE were here this would be an ear defenders area. As I'm off the wind and its quite big seas everything is being thrown from side to side. Every box in every locker bangs form one side to the next..continually. Then there is the bilge water. I have probably got a couple of buckets down there now but as the bilge is so shallow it is not something you can get out, especially as we are rolling so much. Its more of a case of chasing it. It also makes this swirling, swashing noise as it jumps and bumps of every stringer and bulkhead in the boat. It is enough to make anyone go crazy. Not really what you need when you trying to get to sleep. Its funny, I think I would prefer to be going upwind as then I could bail to leeward and at least sleep up against a lee cloth.

I finally was happy with how the boat was set up and the direction we were pointing so I went down for about the 10 time to get some sleep. Lying there ready to punch the windvane lights out I felt the boat spin round.

Just going back to sleeping - Imagine some one does something to you, the worst possible thing, your bloody boils, you cant sit still, you have to say something, you want to confront it/them. Right now your all wound up and in a fit of rage - I know give you an hour to get some sleep - No chance.

Ok so the boat spun round, I jumped up and went on deck. The windvane had broken. The bracket on the vane that hold a connecting rod the servo rudder had come loose. Anything with a nut and bolt out here comes loose. Two nuts and one bolt had gone - M4 so I don't carry spares. I put the autopilot on and agreed I was just too tired to deal with it now - tomorrow morning - bearing in mind is 3 am or something anyway.

So I go on deck first thing this morning to asses the damage and too my horror the servo rudder trim tab is bent a 90' to the rudder. Shit how did that happen. I just don't know how people cross oceans with this kit. My boat is in good condition yet stuff still breaks and falls apart. Taking it off to repair in these conditions would be almost impossible, but leaving it there to swing freely back and forth looked like it was bending the whole windvane. I took the risk, pulled the pin and dragged it onboard.

Firstly the bracket on the vane. No bolts but I do have screws. So I found two screws the right length and the went through the bolts holes. Now I need a piece of some thing for the screws to screw into. Ah perfect my saloon table fiddle! So a hacksaw and a an hour later I had screwed through the braket, through the vane and into a bit of saloon table fiddle - fixed.

Secondly the trim table. The bottom pivot had broken clean off leaving no support for the bottom of the tab. Imagine your bottom pintle going on your dinghy. I need to bend this trim tab straight again - I can believe that it bent 90', it took a lot of banging with a hammer and manipulating with mole grips to get it nearly straight again. Ok now to make a bottom support. I took a small square of the left over saloon table fiddle and bore a hole in it with a drill bit - interesting with no drill. I held the bit in mole grips and then twisted the wood until the pivot of the trim table fitted in nicely. Now how to attch this wood the the servo rudder. I drilled a hole into the rudder but this time I had to twist the drill as the rudders to big to turn. I went through in about 20 minutes but took a nice chunk out of my finger tip when I slid all the way through. I then shaped the wooden block so it had a groove in to locate a cable tie and then placed this through the whole. Job done. All I could think about as I did this was why am I having so much bad luck, but then cheered myself up by thinking how well I had fixed it. My mates at Yachting sports will be well impressed with this repair - no Nick will wonder why I haven't done a neater job!! I also like to remind myself of Robin Knox Johnston and his first trip around the world. I have to think and be like him. There is no dropping out of this race - fixe the issues and keep on going. I have had so many excuses I could have used to drop out of this race but I will not. 30 days is nothing compared with RKJ 300 ish.

I will refit the navik bits when the weather and sea state is better. At the moment the wind generator is balancing the autopilot in terms of amps so no immediate rush to take a risk of loosing any of it over the side.

OK so then onto lunch - 3 eggs scrambled and a hot chocolate. Its all I can stomach and I am so wet cold and miserable - now with a boat full of saw dust I would rather not eat and just sleep - but I have to keep eating to think straight.

While cooking these eggs an almightly wave hit the side of the boat. I have never flown across the cabin quite like it before. I was standing at the galley and ended up sitting on the table pinned up against the switch panel. A big shock as I haven't flewn like that before. Anyway the three remaining eggs in the carton - where are they. Two broken on the floor - quick find the 3rd before it makes a mess. The first two we3nt straight over the side but where is the 3rd. Can you believe it - off all places on the boat for it to smash and land - my Dubarry Boot. Bollocks quite frankly. There is no doubt about it I am being tested and I'm only 3rd of the way to go. I have managed to have a bit of a chuckle to myself about it now but what the hell. Eggy feet from now on.