Whilst I am now sitting in the sunshine, waiting for yachts to arrive in Jolly Harbour, I have a chance to update you on how the fleet are faring.  Poor old Bali Blue, is limping along with a torn mainsail and bent whisker pole, after a couple of mishaps.  But she is doing quite well, nonetheless, and is managing to keep fairly well up with the fleet.  Mercury Rising took a small detour to Cape Verdes and were swiftly back on track.  They are the last ones in the fleet at present, but are catching up slowly.  Miss Tippy leads the charge.

Everyone seems in good spirits, despite the fact that they are all suffering a series of thunder squalls.  I hope the favourable wind they have will see them to Antigua, but I fear it will fall off as they approach.

Here are a couple of Blog entries for 2 days ago, which give you the flavour of life aboard.

Miss Tippy , 26th November 2009

Oh what a night! We hit a humungous electrical storm!! Winds reversed so we took sails in and motored through. Wind not too severe up to about 35 knots but the skies were alive with lightning...very awe inspiring while worrying at the same time. Didn't get much sleep. Wind lighter today and pootling along at 5-6 knots. 944 miles to go...but who's counting!?

Jackamy , Thursday 26th November, 20:33.265N 36:23.631W

Today has been a great day! The seas have been calmer and the sun has been beaming down. We're noticing the closer we get to Antigua the hotter the sun is. Once again Paul and Paul have spent most of their day trying to figure out what to do with the sails! The cruising chute was put up first thing which has helped to stabilise the boat, making the motion you get with downwind sailing much more manageable and we've been sailing along at 7-8 knots. But the main question of the day has been 'To twistle or not to twistle?' We believe the twistle rig was invented to cause confusion and debate! I suppose I should explain what a twistle rig actually is................it is a mechanism to allow you to fly two head sails efficiently. And Paul has made his own!

We've realised we've probably moaned about the swell a bit too much! We're aware it could have been much worse but it's just frustrating when simple tasks become difficult. But anyway as we've said today has been much better!

We passed the half way mark early on today so we celebrated with bacon and poached egg on toast and a glass of wine. Then this afternoon I took full advantage of the calmer seas and baked a lemon cake for afternoon tea!

We're still gaining on some of the boats and we've even passed two in the last 24 hours but I think we should all be arriving in Antigua quite close together.

Another flying fish fatality today! They must be thinking 'The only boat within 100 square miles and I have to bl**dy land on it!'