We are fortunate to have winds between 14 and 17 knots out of the east at the moment and are doing quite well, speed wise, under spinnaker. At noon today we have 404 nautical miles to our waypoint, which is situated between the Brazilian coast and the island of Fernando de Noronha, which is northeast of the city of Natal. As we get closer to the waypoint we should start picking up the effect of the Guiana Current, giving us a bit of a boost of speed up the coast towards the Amazon delta and the equator. We hope to reach the waypoint sometime on Monday.

Life on board is a bit monotonous with just a daily routine taking place and nothing exciting happening. This morning, whilst we were all busy launching the spinnaker, a small pod of dolphin were playing at the bows but, as we were busy with the spinnaker and not paying attention to their antics, they soon disappeared. They tend to stick around if they see us paying attention to them.

Terry was our baker again for the day and produced two fine loves of bread for us - photograph above. He better be careful or he is going to become the chief cook and bottle washer when he gets back home as he is producing some fine meals whilst on board. Tonight we go back to a fish dinner with Shaun cooking up Dorado fillets. He claims the actual meal he intends to prepare is a secret - the rest of us think he has no idea yet how he intends to cook the fish. Last night I whipped up a good old baked macaroni and cheese, which, even if I say so myself, was quite edible.

Last night I was on the 9pm to midnight watch, during which a Common Noddy tried to land on the forward starboard railing. The poor fellow tried a number of times with me lighting up the landing approach with my torch, but eventually gave up and disappeared into the pitch dark. We normally do get visitors of the feathered variety on this section up to the Amazon delta.

Well, just a quick happy birthday greeting to John (ZS1AGF), Dennis (ZS1AU), Hugo (ZS1HSF) and Stan (ZS1T), all of whom have just celebrated their birthdays over the past few days or will celebrate their birthdays in a day or two.

With that salutary note we all bid you well until the next blog report.