Whilst we are still only 70 or so miles off the Mauritanian coast, it's starting to feel like we are properly on the ocean passage, which, coincidentally, we are! The watches are becoming more rhythmic and that strange feeling of being rested but then quickly tired at the end of your watch has set in. I'm currently managing sleep well, as is Dan, but that can all change quickly as events overtake us.

One or two odd odours are prevalent both on deck and in the starboard accommodation tunnel, of which I am one of 11 residents. A very strong fish smell on deck would hint at a flying fish lodged somewhere - but I haven't found it. Down below, my shoes were certainly making their own very special contribution to the boat's 'character' but boot bananas, a present from Dan when we started training together (I got the hint) have (I think) put paid to my particular contribution in the 'Strange and memorable odours of CV23' hall of fame.

This afternoon the crew (under supervision from Dan on the foredeck and me at the helm) put Stefano Ben up the mast to detach our port kite halyard and bring it down to be repaired. Our morning deck walk and rig check had identified that there was chafe and the cover had detached leaving the inner core exposed. Steve Lavery and David Peebles sweat him up to the top with superhuman force (not that Stef is a big guy I hasten to add..) whilst Arshia Mahmood and David Carroll tailed the yankee halyards. The rest of the watch kept the boat sailing at a respectable 10.5 kts and the kite trimmed. Ben Diefel steered course for the entire exercise - an impressive feat in itself as one is painfully aware that you need to keep the boat steady whilst a fellow crew member is 100 feet up a swaying mast! The helms are definitely getting much better, which is great news as the upcoming squally conditions will test them at night during frantic 'bear-aways' and kite drops!

Our Chief Bosun, Paul Widdowson (from whom you will hear later) then cut the line, milked on chafe protection, made a new blood knot and whipped it ready to be re-attached to the kite. We are running dual kite halyards and exercising them pretty regularly, so I'd like to get it up again asap and certainly before dark, once either Dan or Stefano are back on deck. In fact, Steve has just popped in to ask if he can go up, so maybe it's Steve this time.

We enjoyed banana cake from Rachel Burgess, one of our Watch Leaders, today and another excellent lunch served up from the galley, this time courtesy of Suzie Blair and our victualler, Tom Sloan.

Our boat continues to poll late on the race tracker which, believe me, frustrates us (and the techies at The Clipper Race) just as much as it does our followers. Polling an hour late can make a difference of 10 miles or more which, at the moment, makes a big difference to our position in relation to GoToBermuda and Zhuhai. Of course, being 'invisible' would have the benefit of being always in stealth, except the race office require us to send manual reports instead, so we can't get away with that one.

Anyway, enough excuses for one day. Here is something rather special from Paul Widdoswon for his wife, Dawn, a RTW crew on Seattle, currently about 45 miles west of us;

You give me, when I have none
You cook for me when day is done
And your smiling face is second to none.
I love you now as when we first began,
But I will beat you to the finish gun.

Love to the moon and back,

Happy 19th Anniversary

Paul