1300hrs and I have just woken from an hour's nap after knocking off the morning watch, cooking breakfast of porridge for Mark, Andy and myself and a cheese and a pepperoni omelette for Eliot. The ten o'clock fix had another 140NM knocked off and we have started to make the barest hint of easting which is a huge relief to all on board for we have been struggling on that front since the doldrums.

Last night was good sailing although it was very wet with torrential rain clouds passing through and the odd wave or 'goffer' spraying the cockpit as we fetched across a confused sea in full Musto foulies. Looking on deck it is nice to see that the clouds have passed through, and Mark is catching the rays with a big smile on his face for Spirit is feeling good and bursting with energy which is reflected in the voltmeter.

13.67V shows the solar panels are having a good day of it and are really giving the batteries a boost. I still find a boyish enthusiasm for the fact that everything we are doing is thanks to working in harmony with nature. Of course this is partly achieved by tackling the energy problem at both ends for we have a vessel that uses very little power. Something that we seem to have forgotten in the light of our spiraling consumption and subsequent concern for our long term energy needs.

If everyone could reduce their consumption by 20% through simple discipline across the board we could make a very real collective difference. Anything from insulation to low energy washes, turning off lights, ground source pumps, wind turbines, measuring the water in the kettle, cutting half the street lights, small engine cars, turning down the central heating and donning a jumper...... I could go on and on for it takes little imagination. It's something that we take for granted on a boat, we even count the squares of toilet paper that we use for nothing is unlimited once at sea so the mind set is easy. In fact it is unconscious; make everything last.

Wow! Where did all that come from you might ask; too long sitting on the helm with enough time, that rarest resource of all, to contemplate all sorts of interesting issues. In this instance inspiration being our Solar Panels which have silently provided all our power needs without asking for anything in return. It's a big subject and I have decided to look into it in depth once I get home, partly because Tracey and I are going to build a house that embraces all this stuff. It's an idea that has been bubbling away for a long time and we feel about ready for it. So far we have renovated two houses and built a flat from scratch so we have done an apprenticeship of sorts.

Cheers Pete

Thank you Gina; when we took the families out for a sail Mark's Wife Gina made me promise to put a safety strop between the spars and the halyard hook. It's the sort of thing that you do anyway but Gina really underlined it as she was worried about one of us being brained by a falling spar and so the lashing has become known as the 'Gina knot'. Today it came into its own thanks to a pretty wild ride as we rattled through a large and confused sea with a reef in the big lug. The motion such that the hook slipped off and the spar was held by the 'Gina knot'. What could have been both damaging and a nightmare to sort out became a simple case of lowering it to deck, hooking on, and raising it again.

Whilst the wind has yet to back north of east it did manage to clock a bit more this morning and we could feel Spirit of Mystery stretching her legs a bit and were gratified to see that we had managed a 140NM run. Let's hope this trend keeps up and we start to see greater speeds with some easting creeping into our course.

We have an addition to our list of wildlife in that Portuguese Men of War have become really quite frequent and despite their reputation very pretty with their purple head crests glowing in the sun. We also had dolphins playing round the boat as we ate supper last night and although there are much less flying fish they make up for it by being about twice the size of their northern cousins. They always fly off into the wind, powering up the face of waves before gliding into the trough of the next one and powering off again, remaining airborne throughout, and managing anything up to 200metres over five waves.

The heat is oppressive at the moment and as a consequence everyone is a little lethargic and sleep tends to be fitful. We are not complaining mind but it would be nice to lose a couple of degrees.

Cheers Pete

The good news is that the wind has backed enough for us to arrest this worrying trend to the west, and that we have cleared the rump of South America. It's still a bash though and we have all had a tired day, apart from Eliot who is full of the joys and is bouncing about like 'Tigger'. The rest of us have been dropping into bed as soon as we come off watch and still waking up tired - I guess it's just caught up a bit. I had a shave and shower on deck this evening after a nap and feel great for it. The wind is determined not to back properly although it should have done so, and we now expect a further couple of days fetching before we are able to crack the sheets and let her have her legs. Can't wait as in theory we should be flying at the moment.

Eliot saw a huge Super Tanker yesterday and our question is: "How long is the longest Ship in the World?" If anyone knows the answer it would be great to hear from you.

Cheers Pete

Another long night with the wind up and down as rain clouds pass through. We have a reef in the big lug at the moment but it may well be taken out in the next half hour looking at the clouds. Eliot is happy as a bean and singing away as he dries the dishes for we have had pancakes for breakfast which is one of his favorites. You really wouldn't know that they were made with powdered egg and powdered milk so we have another winner on the list. I think Monday's may well become pancake day.

The struggle we have been facing of late is the need to get south and maintain a hold on to our easting and it has been both a worry and a frustration. It seems we are not the only ones to be suffering from the doldrums and the SEasterlies that have followed them, for I am told that the Vendee fleet is 250NM to the east of where they would like to be. The problem is three fold in that we are as close to the wind we can be with the short, steep and often confused seas that seem to be the norm around here. Any closer and our bluff 1850's bow stops us dead as we begin to hobby horse. On top of this we have a strong easterly current that runs between 1 and 2knts, so we are effectively trying to cross a conveyor belt and being a slow boat it has a far greater effect.

So we bash away, for that's all we can do, keeping a wayward eye on the rump of South America, for if we don't clear it I can't tell what a disaster that would be. The good news though is that as of this morning's fix I feel confident that we will crack it, and once we have done so the current should follow us round to help rather than hinder our progress.

The next big mile stone is to see the wind start to back and enable us to bring her nose up and start making some easting, for that's what we need to make Cape Town.

Cheers Pete