In the middle of the night we quickly lost speed indicating we must have something caught on the keel. Because it was over 20 knots, we had to bear off, lower the jib and go head to wind and back down. When all said and done, this would have cost us three or four miles.

Today we spent an hour sailing with no mainsail as we had to fix the inboard end of one of our batten sockets. It appears to have just come apart under the load of all this reaching. Fortunately we carry a spare, although as is so often the case the spare wasn't identical so it needed some fine tuning.

I am happy with our easterly position and I am sure the others will have to work this way - it seems to have stopped the loss of miles for a while.

Ian Walker - Skipper