At dawn the wind died. Looks like we might be doing this for a couple of days at least as a high remains stationary. A Lady have raced on ahead and are now too far away for us to be able to hear them on 4 Alpha and as they are not tuned in for 6 Alpha we communicate by email instead. The format of the net has changed anyway from when we were on World ARC. Now the net controller leads all the discussion. We don't race and we don't fish so don't have any real contribution to make.
At one o'clock in the morning the log read 1000nm. We are over halfway there now. The time zones are changing rapidly as we continue to make our easting. When we left Bermuda darkness fell around 8pm with dawn at 6am. Now it is getting light as David gets me up for my watch at 4am with sunrise before 5am. And last night we had the first of a new moon so from now until we arrive in the Azores we will have relatively few hours of darkness which compared to the twelve hours in the southern hemisphere is a real bonus. By the time we get home we will see all night. Imagine that!
Yesterday a beautiful red billed tropic bird came skimming over the surface of the waves towards the boat, followed shortly after by a juvenile. At this point we were now 900 nm out into the Atlantic. They were attempting to land. Three times the juvenile managed to settle on the davits but overbalanced as its claws couldn't get a proper grip on the slippery stainless steel surface. He gave up. The mother kept on trying. We urged, we pleaded, we cajoled but try as she might with outstretched wings furiously flapping, she just couldn't make it on board. We slowed the boat. We throttled right back until we were just ghosting along but time and time again her attempts at a landing failed. She must have made over 30 repeated attempts over a period of half an hour. She just seemed to lack the aerodynamic lift as she made her final approach to get herself aboard. We had to leave her to his fate. It was hard.

Theme Tune
Things have got quite silly. A few minutes before our favourite radio broadcast of the day comes on air we sing a signature tune at the top of our voices..... The Archers! Tum te tum te tum te tum, tum te tum te tum tum.... No we have not been drinking salt water, just two happy bunnies trying to introduce a touch of levity into what has been a long boring day of motoring. But really it is no laughing matter for this man Herb has saved many a yachtsman skin by steering them away from all sorts of dodgy weather. He gives this service seven days a week. What on earth would we do if he went off air we wonder. The yachting fraternity would be much the poorer for it and we would miss the opportunity to sing his theme tune every evening at 19.29 UTC precisely! Tum te tum te tum te tum......