Maiden II, the former Club Med, needs an average speed of 15.6 knots from now until the finish if she is to break Grant Dalton’s Club Med transatlantic speed record.

Tracy Edward’s Maiden team left Cadiz for San Salvador on Thursday 11 April in an attempt to break Grant Dalton’s record of 10 days 14 hours 53 minutes and 44 seconds in the. So far the going is good and Team Maiden is currently sailing in classic Trade Wind conditions of north-easterly 20 knots of wind as they take the southern route round the bottom of the high pressure zone.

Crew member Paul Larsen talks about the conditions on board Maiden II at the start of the fourth day.

“It’s now midday and we are charging along in near perfect conditions. For the first time since the start we have not had to do a sail change for our entire watch. The numbers have been consistently high and on course. You work hard on these boats dreaming of these conditions. The sailing is fast, dry and easy and we are all dressing for the beach. The sails all stacked aft and to windward make for a comfortable bench seat from which to trim from. However, we realise we still must not get complacent. The helmsman (whoops! helmsperson) is the one doing all the work but is reluctant to hand over the hotseat. Guillemo Attadil in his helm change briefing to Helena Darvelid whilst steaming along at 26 knots simply said ‘perfect’ and walked below. We laughed at how cool this exchange was but soon realised he had summed it up beautifully. Mind you, it goes against my policy of saying few words when many will do!

The night was not without incident as the new breeze filled in a highly loaded block controlling the gennaker sheet exploded whilst Fraser Brown was down to leeward checking trim. Fortunately we had a safety sheet rigged which saved the gennaker from a flogging Fraser’s head.

We took advantage of the new headed breeze to sail lower on the course into the south-west as this we hope will pay dividends later in the lighter winds expected for the upcoming night.

The breeze has since moved aft and as a result we are quickly getting back to the required average for a successful attempt. We are currently sailing in 20 knots of north-easterly wind which may lighten and go further into the east/north-east at about 10 to 15 knots.”

Signing off Paul Larsen helped by Fraser and Adrienne.

Thought of the day: Home is where the food is.

SOG: 20-22kts

COG: 260T

TWS: 20kts

TWD: 030T

TWA: 130

Daily run: 358.7

Position: 25 20N 22 15W at 11 12

Club Med position end Day 3: 27 40N 23 30W

Distance to finish: 2847nm

Average speed to finish required to break record: 15.6kts

Average speed for Maiden II since start: 15.18kts

Maiden II has 182.5 hours to get to finish line