(this should have been posted yesterday but for some reason did not load - I think)

We can report that the fish from 2 days ago was delicious, eaten in wraps with salad for lunch - for the two of us who were up to eating fish on a wobbly sea. The rest survived on cup-a-soups (91 left, according to the spreadsheet).

The last 24 hours have brought calmer conditions. We sailed south west as long as the wind would hold, and then started motoring mid-evening. We have a wide windless patch to get through until we reach the Trades, which are tantalisingly close. Still giving thanks for the extra diesel we took on in Las Palmas. When motoring we run the engine at quite low revs, to eke out the fuel supply. Hopefully we will make the Trades late afternoon or early evening today, but we try never to count chickens on Barracuda.

Talking of which, a great supper last night cooked by Bibi �" Kozani chicken �" a recipe left on the boat by Cameron who helped us get the boat down to Ireland.

We are using some relatively calm time to catch up on laundry, make water, check fruit/veg for anything going off and generally make sure we are as far ahead on domestic matters before we get into the trade winds, when we will have some sailing to do. Today’s casualty was a particularly pungent couple of leeks. Also, our scientific controlled test shows that bananas kept in a cloth below decks ripen faster than those kept in the sun, but not by much â€�" so yes, we will have 14 ripening on the same day.

We’re now past 25 west (furthest west Barracuda’s ever been) so today we put the ship’s clock back. It’s also pretty warm so there are four tummies on display today.

We have seen a couple of other ARC boats on AIS and had a chat with one last night who was about 12 miles behind us. Sometimes you can catch conversations between other boats on the VHF. Usually we just catch snippets, but we get a sense for how the rally is playing out. The boats that went south west have had not enough wind or had it on the nose, so they have had to do a lot of motoring �" it looks like a few will be calling into the Verdes to refuel. Those that went west seem to have had too much wind, with reports of gales for many. There also seems to be a group who hugged the African coast and who may have done very well. When we looked at this option originally it seemed like a big distance penalty, but if they were able to maintain boat speed and sail it may have played out for them. We are looking forward to seeing how everyone has done.

Distance run in the last 24 hours: 107 nautical miles

Cumulative distance run since ARC start: 859 nautical miles