Day 16 Dec 9th

Speed: 8.5 knots @ 248.93°

Position at: 09 Dec 2013 08:00 UTC

Lat/Lon: 18° 49.80 N, 052° 44.19 W

DTF: 586.2 NM

3rd in Racing B

After a long night of regular short watch changes - to ensure concentration at the helm in difficult sea conditions - the morning started with hoisting our "Mr Norris" spinnaker to maintain our fast boat speed and bring us to St Lucia that bit earlier. With winds anticipated of up to 28 knots, keeping the spinnaker up all day was ambitious, but as long as he was up, we knew we would be progressing as fast as was possible. As it happened, surfing down a 5m Atlantic swell, we kept that over-sized beast of a sail flying all day and hit almost 13 knots several times - fantastic! Our afternoon roller coaster ride ended when the wind and waves suddenly whipped up to throw us first into a Chinese Gybe and then a broach. It was a pretty dramatic moment - we could have lost the mast - but Milanto pulled through and all were hugely relieved.

It was all hands on deck to drop Mr Norris. Two crew members wrestled on the lurching foredeck to pull him down as the wind whipped around, forcing the sail up and away from the boat and almost taking the foredeck crew with it. Despite sailing gloves, the force was too great and rope burns were suffered by both before they got the better of him, bringing him to his knees and forcing him into his bag. That may be the last we see of Mr Norris. He has lost the affection of certain members of the crew who painfully wince at the mere mention of his name. Tonight we will race with 2 head sails and the main and with the wind speed increasing, its unlikley we could go any faster anyway.

With St Lucia now only 2 or so days away, some of the crew are getting itchy feet. We need to maintain concentration at this very important part of the challenge and idle talk about soft white linen sheets, cold beers, proper showers, seeing our better halves, being able to stand up or walk around without having to cling to the wall like bloody spiderman, more cold beers.....needs to be checked.

Eyes on the prize gentlemen. There is still 450 miles of challenging ocean to overcome.

Day 15 Dec 8th

Speed: 7.9 knots @ 238.49°

Lat/Lon: 19° 50.66 N, 050° 39.64

WDTF: 716.2 NM

4th in Racing B

A fairly balmy night in which winds held strong and we covered a great deal of distance. At supper last night we had 800 miles to complete, by early morning we had chalked off another 70. This morning we made the decision to unfurl Mr Norris - our super light spinnaker - once again to make the most of the steady prevailing wind and we took it in turns at the helm to carve our way through a big sea - huge but regular swell - at  a fast pace fluctuating between 7 and 10 knots.

The day has been very warm and those members of the crew who are follicaly challenged have had to take extra precautions, including factor 500 sun cream and large brim hats.

Still no sign of any other yachts although we did spy a vessel early this evening but heading in a different direction. They clearly don't want to mess with us. As it stands late this afternoon we are lying in 4th place for our class, but, 6th overall out of the 253 boats that started 2 weeks ago.

We are all now very focused on getting into St Lucia as quickly as possible - 641 miles to go as of 19:30 hrs - to secure a very cold beer hence we will be looking to maximise progress overnight.

Day 14 Dec 7th under 1000km to go!

Speed: 8.1 knots @ 243.16°                              Speed: 8.3 knots @ 243.23°

Position at: 07 Dec 2013 08:00 UTC                               Position at: 07 Dec 2013 20:00 UTC

Lat/Lon: 21° 39.90 N, 046° 44.28 W                  Lat/Lon: 20° 57.62 N, 048° 17.80 W

DTF: 962.7 NM                                                DTF: 866.7 NM

5th in Racing B                                                3rd in Racing B

As predicted by Vale the wind shifted to the North East late on the 6th, we gybed onto 260 degrees heading directly to St Lucia and quickly picked up speed to 8 knots. Overnight we maintained this speed with wind of 20 knots and by morning had covered 110 miles since dinner.

Today the wind has remained steady and we have been bowling along at between 8.5 and 10.5 knots. At this time, 1630 Milanto time, we have 844 miles to go

The weather forecast is favorable for the rest of the trip with some periods of stronger winds on our stern and scattered rain but mostly warm and sunny. There is  big sea running but it is helping us on our way and Milano is riding wind and waves beautifully.

We have had a good day with rod and line and have landed two Dorado one of which was a whopper at nearly a meter long it took Karl 20 minutes to reel it in. We are going to have a very fresh fish supper tonight.

Planning  a night at the movies tonight. Its a toss up between a "Tarantino" movie, options are Kill Bill 2, Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs  or something slightly less dark like "Hangover 1 ! Much will depend on our mood after dinner as well as getting the technology to work.

As the miles start to click down now our thoughts are starting to turn to our arrival in St Lucia and reunion with our wives,a stable bed and crisp white sheets not to mention a rum with an ice cold beer chaser. Ahh all sounds good.

ETA looks like late Wed 11 or early 12th.

Day 13 Dec 6th

The night of Dec 5 was relatively benign with subdued winds following a brief period of total calm. Its extraordinary that the same ocean that only a few days ago tossed us so violently from side to side and up and down that it felt as if you were literally hanging on for life, could so suddenly reduce to nothing. And ironically, that is more frustrating.We made little ground on our journey but at least we were all able to get a better nights sleep.

We made little ground on our journey but at least we were all able to get a better nights sleep.

We have put the clocks back an hour and dawn broke sometime after 7. It was a magnificent sky and those on deck were accompanied by a small pod of dolphins who darted across our bow. Thereafter, the day has proved to be a combination of strong sun, and strong(ish) wind......but in the wrong direction, despite numerous tacks to stay ahead. We have been expecting a wind shift to the North all day but something strange is happening. As we tack into the current headwind the boat is pulling off course such that we are actually going backwards. We have bet on staying on a North tack to catch the wind shift that should...accelerate us to our destiny, but every minute they delay, we add  double time to our overall journey.

Tomorrow should see us on a fast track to St Lucia we are all keen to cover the ground now and ready to work hard as hard as necessary to get us there in best possible time now.

position at midnight

Speed: 6.6 knots @ 250.36°    Lat/Lon: 22° 7.40 N, 045° 41.76 W    DTF: 1020.8 NM     11th in Racing B

Day 12 Dec 5th

We sailed through the night with "Mr Norris" up, Milantos  spinnaker. This was very tricky as winds were light and variable so avoiding a wrap was very challenging. To cover the watches Vale, Gianni,  John E and Nick took the helm for an hour at a time whilst John L and Karl provided support on 2 hr shifts. It was a long night but by day break we had put 180 miles on the clock over a 24 hr period and most importantly had ourseleves well positioned vis our competition and with regard to the area of high pressure that we are trying to avoid.

Nick got a wrap in the spinnaker about 10 mins before coming off duty at 8am but Vale soon had it sorted and he redeemed himself by helping with a very slick spinnaker gybe later in the day.

Today we have seen a mixture of 15knots to light airs, mainly sunny but with occasional cloud cover. No fish caught today, the boat is probably moving to slowly for the lure to do its work.

As no fresh fish in the larder we have broken out a pigs trotter and Mr Lobek has put his butchery skills to good use once again. Tonight we will dine on pork with potatoes.

We did a stock take on our wine celler today and are pleased to note that we have 18 bottles of wine on board including some sparkling wine to celebrate when we cross that finishing line.

News today is that the first yacht home crossed the line today, Caro. It is one of the super racers, not in our Class but still, an amazing pace and a new ARC record. Well done guys, enjoy a rum and a good rest - party starts in earnest when we get in !

We have now covered 1,720 miles and have 1,119 to go. Best estimate for arrival is  currently 11/12 Dec but much will depend on the next 36 hrs of sailing and whether our tactics to avoid an area of high pressure with no wind are successful.

All crew are very well, enjoying the trip and dare we say getting a little competitive now the end is in sight albeit some 6 days sailing to go.