Here’s a Mini Transat skipper at work during the stopover in Funchal.

The custom of painting your vessel’s name on the harbour wall to bring you luck on an Atlantic crossing began in Horta and has become a great tradition in Madeira, the Azores and the Canary Islands.

It’s very unusual for racing skippers to bother (don’t they have a nipper to do that for them?) but there’s something quite touching about the Mini skippers’ eagerness to take their place in a long line of ocean navigators.

The race restarts tomorrow: 3,100 miles to Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. You can follow it here 

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