Starting day 10 today and making excellent progress.  Celebrated the halfway point on day 7 with steaks on the BBQ, Paul and Rich donned fancy dress with two shirts and two pairs of shorts each in a half ‘n half fashion and we were even allowed two drinks at happy hour instead of the usual one.

Yesterday was a record day clocking 245.9 miles over a 24-hour period meaning an average speed of 10.24 knots!  Fantastic for reducing time at sea but not quite so fantastic for the comfort levels below deck, in particular when it comes to the attempts of cooking in a galley at a constantly changing tilt.  Today has been very gusty making the sailing a bit more exciting although it didn’t stop the bread making this morning followed by a quick batch of puff pastry ready for the salmon en croute for dinner with hollandaise sauce (no tinned delivery food on this crossing!).

Fishing has ground to a halt recently, partly due to the increased speed of the yacht making it very difficult to reel anything in until all sails have been put away and partly due to a very full freezer already brimming with plenty of skipjack tuna.  One particularly large tuna was landed a couple of days ago by Helen who reeled it in as if it weighed the same as a feather much to the boys’ bemusement.

We now have just under 1000 miles to go.  After only 10 days at sea (having completed just over 2000 miles so far), this is one impressive feat for Concerto and some of her best sailing since we’ve been onboard.  Average speed for the whole crossing so far stands just above an impressive 9 knots so we’re hoping it stays this way for the remaining few days.

Clare