Today is a good day and it has proved to be the day that we have settled into the voyage. Although there is a little queasiness it was not enough to stop us having bacon and egg sandwiches at sunrise. There comes a point when the ribs need lining and we all feel great for it - shame we missed our tot of Talisker on the chart table on Monday evening for Trafalgar Night. Nelson, I think would have forgiven us as I am sure he would have related to the multicoloured yawns that prevailed through the night. We might have a tot for him tonight.

One thing he would have approved of is this mornings gift of fresh wind on the beam which has been easing slowly to see the big mizzen up. We estimated that we would clear the continental shelf at about 0400hrs and we had a period of very disturbed sea before it settled into what I would call an ocean. Lovely deep blue and a much smoother feel to it as the harshness of the past 36 hours gets lost in the depths of the Atlantic.

It is as if we have come out of hybernation with a burst of activity ranging from setting up the solar panels - and they are charging like a dream - to a deck check and general tidy up. There are a couple of chafe issues which we have sorted apart from one up the mast that can wait for a more convenient time.

The big question on all our minds is where are we, for we have not had a huge amount of luck on the Astro Navigation despite lots of enthusiasm. The one thing we wanted was a midday fix and would you believe it if a chundering great cloud decided to obscure it at the critical moment. Our best guess is that we are at 46 48N and 8 10W as of 1250GMT - go on, I bet you look at the tracker for a laugh. It is a bit of a stab as we don't have a lot to go on apart from an EP and a fix on the loom of Ouessant and our first mer pass yesterday. We will have to see, but my sense is that we are a little further east as westing has been a bit of a struggle.

There was a great shout from Eliot as I was bashing this out and I have just come back down from a spectacular display by a pod of dolphins. They are stunning and I dont think the camera has a wide enough angle lens to fit in Eliot's grin.

Well I think the Newlyn Fishermen should put to sea as they are sure of a good catch given that we have been feeding the fish all night. It was a frantic day yesterday and at about 1400hrs we took the decision on Lee Bruce's advice that we should go for it and everything went up another notch. I think we covered most details although we didn't quite get to the launderette for 1700hrs and discovered that they are prompt at closing the doors, so we are bit short on knicks and socks.

Rowing her out was amazing and I can't thank the supporters enough for the send off - particularly given the weather. In fact we were pretty chuffed at how good old 'Spirit of Mystery' rose to the moment as we hadn't really rowed her. We cleared the harbour at 1830hrs, filled the wind with sails and we were off into a dark, wet and rough old night. As soon as the RNLI boat turned back it felt like we had left and thoughts of home and family came flooding through and I gave Tracey a quick call to say we were off. The sun is out at the moment and I can clearly visualise her pottering about in the garden - role on Cape Town.

In the midst of all the chaos yesterday we were delighted to meet Peter Harris who chairs the welcoming committee in Australia. He had come a long way and I wish we had had a little more time for him. It was so good to let him see the boat and have a chat about ideas and the ethos of the project - Melbourne is going to be great. In the midst of everything every boat needs a rock and ours was Paul Moody - cheers Paul.

Last night was a wild ride with large and very confused seas, driving rain and pitch dark. Perfect for mal der mare and we rose to the occasion as we dragged our way through the night. Spelling each other as and when the need arose but as with all things in life it is now in the past and the sun is out and we are as happy as could be. We did our first sun sight and came out pretty close to our dead reckoning which was a stab in the dark but at least they support each other.

It's pretty light now and we have the big lug up and seem to be tottling along in the remains of the seaway which is dissipating by the hour.

So life is good and we look forward to clearing the Bay of Biscay as soon as we can. It was interesting that through the night we had a dolphin that kept popping up by the boat - 'our guardian angel'.

Hi All,

A quick update for you all. Despite the apparent amazing progress made by the team that currently has them loitering somewhere off Shanghai, this is due to a technical problem with another vessel having a similar tracking code. This is hopefully being resolved within the next 12-24 hours, so do please keep visiting the blog and tracker for updates.

Thanks for all your interest and support.

Cheers,

Stu.

I love this picture which was very kindly sent to me from John Lees one of the relatives to the original crew, Captain Richard Nicolls - thanks John!

Mandy