Well, what can I say; I relieved Mark at 1800hrs and have spent it below cooking a honey roast ham with mash and pea's. The Tiller has been lashed throughout as we wallow away on an oily sea and no visible sign of wind on the horizon. Pudding was a couple of custard creams and conversations about how this leg is stretching out and we are powerless to do anything about it.

You might think it's lonely down here, it can certainly feel a desolate place at times but today it has been alive with social activity. If there is no wind then Albatross don't fly and what does anybody do when the shop shuts down? Congregate for a cuppa and a gossip and this is just what they have been doing along with another smaller bird that frequents the sky down here.

The Albatross have been tapping beaks and waving their wings in a courtly manner; a 'my wings are bigger than yours type of show for the girls'. What is fantastic is that they are completely fearless and have swum right up to the boat and that is when you really see the size of them. Oddly enough we have also seen a number of turtles over the last few days and the mind boggles at how they can find each other. In fact Eliot saw an Albatross have a good old peck at one, not that it seemed to take heed.

Well, that's my watch done, not a mile in sight and Eliot who has taken over is sitting on the engine box playing patience. An appropriate game for we have 4237NM to go. Mandy has emailed to say that someone has asked, through the website where St Paul's is; about 38.5S and 78E or roughly half way between Cape Town and Melbourne. If you go on Google Earth start at the Kerguelen Isles and go North with a bit of east in it.

Today's thank you goes to Martin Gundry for the beautiful saloon table that he made us. Martin, your wish has been fulfilled in that many chats, meals and glasses of wine have been enjoyed round your centrepiece. Look forward to catching up at London Business School for a cuppa on my return and hope the extension to your workshop is as you hoped. In fact I'll swing by to check it out and see what project you have on the go.

Cheers Pete

This place seems to be either full on or off for we are just starting to pull through what has been a proper old blow these last twenty four hours. It didn't have many distinguishing features about it apart from a deep and fast moving front which hit us with a vengeance in the darkest of hours. Spirit of Mystery was well snugged down and feeling comfortable under the number two, two reefs in the working lug and mizzen. We were expecting the front but it still managed to be a surprise for the wind suddenly shot up with gusts of over forty knots. Andy, who was on the helm shouted for all hands and by the time I had my foulie bottoms on the wind had backed through forty degrees and it was mayhem on deck.

It took an hour and half of hard work to drop the mizzen, gybe the jib and then drop the working lug before Andy Gybed her to steady down the wild motion, while Mark and I stowed the working lug and hoisted the mizzen on the main mast which is a first and I have to say it worked a treat. The night could not have been blacker as angry tumbling wave crests rushed past glowing with agitated phosphorescence. Looking at the barograph on coming below the front showed itself with a steep sided 'V' which was so pronounced that it wouldn't look out of place lined up in the alphabet.

Lee has told us that there is yet another calm patch ahead of us which may well have head winds and that we must get south as quickly as we can. This has made for some hard sailing as we have had to bear the brunt of this gale on the beam but I have to say good old Spirit of Mystery has done us proud. Another feature of the blow has been that the temperature has really dropped and we are starting to feel the cold on deck if not well wrapped up. In fact Eliot has just relieved me and I took the opportunity to do the dishes in the bucket on deck and my hands had got that cold that the water felt really quite warm - silver lining in every cloud.

As with the last leg we spend a lot of time thinking about the destination and I have to say we are really looking forward to Melbourne. In fact, and I think it might be on account of the weather, we are looking to a pasty. A pint and a pasty would just hit the spot and I couldn't think of anything more appropriate at the end of this voyage from Cornwall. Progress is very slow on account the weather systems that we have been suffering. If we do get parked up for another handful of days we will have to start looking at our rations with a view to this being a lot longer leg than expected so we have everything crossed for a more settled period. St Paul's is certainly looking like it might have to drop of the menu.

We have been surrounded by the largest and most majestic of Albatross so far and it's interesting to see that spend quite a lot of time sitting together in the water. In fact it's interesting to see that all the different variety of birds are happy to sit in a group. We hear it is Kyle Madgwick's Seventh birthday today so we named a huge Albatross which must have had a wing span of fifteen feet after him. We hope you have had a great birthday - ask your Dad to get his tape measure out and to show you how big the Albatross is. Absolutely majestic.

Cheers Pete

Yesterday was a good day for it offered a window where we could draw breath and have some time for a bit of TLC. The sun was out for the first time in a while and we all had a good old wash and shave on deck to be followed by clean undies and thermals - absolute bliss. It's not quite the tropics where we would drown ourselves in bucket after bucket of warm water but the result is just as good. We followed that up with our first meal where we all were able to sit down and break bread as a crew. Up until now the helm has had to remain on his own on deck while the rest of the crew eat below although one us often holds back so the helm doesn't have to eat on his own.

This trend in the weather remained through the night with the most amazing night sky crisscrossed by loads of shooting stars. The wind was fickle and we had to coax for every mile we could get which meant a couple of gybes and sail changes. The big lug received a rip during one of these so it was out with needle and thread for some herringbone stitches. The repair looks as pretty as a picture although I might put a patch on at a later date. It still staggers me at how little wear and tear we have seen in the sails and running rigging. A credit to Patrick Selman who made the sails and this simple rig.

Unfortunately a murky drizzle swept through just after dawn so we were denied a look at the eclipse which is a real shame as we are in a good position to make the most of it. This afternoon the sun came out again and we have been able to enjoy an easy day with light airs from aft. I have been trying to catch up on administration - just can't get away from the office. Andy baked some bread and it was Eliot's turn to cook tonight so we enjoyed one of his noodles. The starter was popcorn with Golden Syrup mixed in.

This is a place of contrast for it's either full on or off; windy one day and calm the next which makes it hard to get into a rhythm. It seems that we are going to have to head down to 42 degrees to avoid a high that has decided to head south in the next couple of days. There's never a dull moment.

Cheers Pete

We have had the oddest twenty four hours for they haven't delivered what we expected. Indeed it has been a period of conflicting signals and little substance. We went into a very dark night with the pressure easing and the oily calm being broken by a wind from the NE. I had the evening watch and as day was swallowed up by night the cloud level dropped and the darkness was such that even the feeble compass light was able to cast its influence as far as the deck at my feet.

On glancing up I saw an area of about ten acres of light on the water ahead and my flash assumption was that the moon had broken through the clouds. This of course could not be the case for moon up is late at the moment and glancing aloft the cloud was as thick as ever. The next surprise was the sea around Spirit of Mystery lit up; literally, it was as if an underwater light show had just been turned on. It had a green hue, was quite beautiful and really very bright, enough to put the boat into silhouette. It's something that I have never seen before but the phosphorescence which was milky in nature had been agitated by the surface action of the wind. I'll never forget it.

Eliot took over as the wind rose so I spent his hour working on the deck until Andy came up for his watch. By now it was really quite windy and we spent another hour setting her up for the expected blow. On coming below the pressure was plummeting and everything was doing what it should be doing. I turned in to try and grab some sleep before we were overrun by the big NE blow that we had spent the day waiting for. Sleep was elusive but a doze is better than nothing.

My next watch was weird for Mark shook me to say that the wind had died right off and we were wallowing about in a confused sea with torrential rain, the type of rain that has the intensity to bounce back up off the deck. The pressure was still falling steeply, had been for a few hours and yet we had not a breath of wind. The rain passed, stars started to show their face, a pod of big whales circled the boat venting in the darkness. There was a large swell and yet after two hours on watch there was still no wind and it was starting to fray. The pressure had bottomed out.

Come the morning we had an oily swell and bright sunshine between showers and still no wind. I have to say it's been one of the oddest twenty four hours I have had at sea. Come lunch time the wind started to pick up from the south and we now have about 25knts which is due to rise up to gale force through the night. What's been interesting is to see the effect of a southerly wind on a large northerly swell, the conflict making for a very agitated surface. Somehow we completely missed the nasty NE gale and things seem to have settled back to the patterns we are used too. Mark has filled us up with a dirty great pot mess and we are hunkering down for a long night.

Cheers Pete