GHOST

With around 1500 miles to go we are just about half way, and will have a glass of something appropriate for sundowners tomorrow when we will have passed that point. There is nothing major to report, apart from this morning`s spectacular landing of another Mahi Mahi, a bigger one, over a metre long and around 4 kg! our frozen meat supplies consists of 1.keg of chicken and keg of beef, but at this rate we will still have it in St Lucia.

Yesterday saw the wind drop below 20kts and we raised the gennaker for the first time since the start; challenging at times in the following seas, but certainly upping our speed a bit. As we are beginning to claw our way back up through our class, a feeling we all enjoy, we carried it into the dark, but later decided to reduce to just the headsail as it was pretty stressful. Today is back up in the 20`s and we don't want to risk a shredding in that..a few boats have lost their spinnakers already.

We also had some mainsail repairs and a broken batten to sort yesterday. Our simple little boat life is never boring, after our first full week we are well in routine of a life in four hour slots, and there is always something to do. Our immediate world is sunshine, blue skies, wearing shorts even on watch at 3am, watching passing flying fish, with the odd crash-landing on deck, and of course, less enjoyably, the endless lumpy seas, rolling boat and sleep deprivation.

A daily radio net keeps us up to date with the other boats progress, and over the last few days we have seen a four other boats , with several more within 30 miles ( ahead...hopefully soon to be astern!). We keep looking for the 200 mile days run, having achieved it once, but most days are around 180, a steady pace which if we have chosen the right course , and the weather does what we think it will, will get us there in a respectable time......not that we are competitive or anything, but the more boats we pass the more we want to catch the ones in front. We are all agreed we are glad we are not on the serious `night kite flying dried food ration eating` serious boats..who are doing very well, but we doubt if they are having as much fun!

Back to the sunshine and my book....

NOTE: Photos are on the ARC website, head for daily logs and search for GHOST. Sorry we can't upload them to our blog from sea!