It's a Marathon Race

As I write this, we are exactly half way in our race across the South Atlantic Ocean and about 200 miles south west of Tristan da Cunha, the remotest inhabited island in the World. Conditions are getting cooler as we cross the 40* south latitude (the Roaring Forties), so on my last night watch I had seven layers of clothes on! The hope is then the wind will pull us up to Cape Town, where at this rate we should have a good long stopover. There is a great vibe on the boat as Skipper Matt is pleased with our progress in relation to his plans, the next few days however will be vital, we need to take advantage of the wind that sees us sailing on a broad reach, steering the boat as best we can and constantly trimming Bruce (our biggest kite) to the point just before he collapses, then we ease the line out when one side of the sail starts to curl, before grinding it in again to catch the wind (in the same way you tug on a toy kite to catch the wind).

Yesterday we were joined by a pod of dolphins which was especially good for the new members of crew to see and we are all on Albatross watch, whom I gather have huge wing spans.

The food on board has been great despite biscuits having to be rationed out! The night before last Neil and Peter made an amazing beef stew with mashed potato and yesterday Kate and I were mothers, serving chorizo sausage, onion and cheese in home made bread rolls for lunch and chilli con carne in the evening, now everyone has recovered from their sea sickness they are able to eat more and luckily we have custard left over from leg 1, so I'm always happy with the puddings! 

Finally, all on Team Mission Performance send best wishes to Stewart Hymas and Principal Julie Lodrick from The Mount school who are both competing in The York Marathon later today!