Just for the record our day starts at 1100 hrs (being the start time rally) and runs for 24 hrs. We are now at day 6 that completed at 1100 hrs on Monday 3rd December having covered 195 miles in the day. First time under a 200 mile day.

Overnight 22 to 28 knots, heavy rain and zero visibility. It was not possible to distinguish the horizon until the early hours this morning when the moon rose. The swell and the wind waves were coming at us from different directions and occasionally the driver would get a dumping as a wave reared up alongside the port quarter, crested and before you have a chance to pull away a little you are dumped on ? the only good news is that did not happen to often and the sea water is 25 degrees so warmer then the rain. Wet weather gear continues to get a good work out!

Dawn showed prospects of a gloomy day but as the morning progressed the sun burst through until a first for the trip so far so shorts and no t-shirts! As the wind dropped to around 18 knots true it was A3 genaker time. So all afternoon we have been trucking along at over 9 knots on 15 ? 18 of wind sailing at 120 apparent.

The latest position report on the ARC site is still showing our position taken at a time 4 hours earlier than most others. Ace ( a very smart J1445) is showing as ahead of us by 0.2 miles but that should be 35 miles that we are ahead when the time difference is taken into account. So they did gain 15 miles on us over the last 24 hours. They give us time on handicap but it would be nice to beat them on the line also!

This afternoon a small bird (with a long beak) arrived - a long way from shore. It seems very tired so we have made up a box for it and feed it some breadcrumbs. The forecast is for the wind to drop to 12 - 15 knots and move a little to the east which will be good for us particularly if we can get the A2 gennie up colloquially known on board as big red).

1426 mils to go as we write this, 66 miles until we then start counting down
Cheers
Pam & Keith