Not only has the wind and sun been very kind to us for the last few days but this morning we were greeted by several minke whales. What a fantastic sight! They were swimming around the boat for at least half an hour, much to our amazement and slight concern as to whether they were going to hit the boat. However they played around in the surf and one by one slowly made their way off.

So at present we have 580 miles left to go, a nice breeze taking us on our way and even better the water maker is running which means we can all have a shower later. Compared to last year when I went 16 days without a shower makes this trip seem like a walk in the park. Not only that but we had boil in the bag food for the whole duration. Oh no not this year. Sarah has been feeding us well with homemade brownies, breads and cakes as well as scrumptious dinners. It seems like such a contrast to what I endured during the ARC 2007!

Good news is that despite our detour via the Cape Verde’s for a few days we have managed to claw our way back up the fleet and as far as I’m aware we are back into double figures. Not bad considering a week ago we were position 198th! Sunday we all placed our bets as to when we will be arriving into St. Lucia. All except Steven decided on various time throughout Friday 12th, he decided it would be the early hours of Saturday….I hope not, I can almost taste the rum punch already.

Nik and Steven are now back on the fishing expedition having caught 2 fairly large tuna yesterday. I think they are secretly hoping for a mega Dorado which will go down in ARC history. It’s great for them as they are not allergic to seafood. Their canapés consisted of tuna and wasabi sushi. I had crisps! Still it kept them entertained for hours so who can complain?