D+1 Isolation

It's quite isolated now being at sea. We spot other vessels occasionally - we are on the heels of one of our fleet with a red spinnaker, whilst we still see a few ships running north up the Portuguese coast - but we have no idea what is going on in the outside world. Yesterday was a constant hustle of press attention and we wonder how much of that coverage made it onto your screens and your journals but have no way of telling.

Even the wildlife is sparser. We saw no dolphins today and only a fulmar and a couple of gannets. We did have a brief visitor on board - a rather lost and exhausted wood warbler landed on the main sheet for a brief rest before continuing its migration.

The seas smoothed and we have hoisted the spinnaker. Ollie is enjoying teasing the most out of it whilst the rest of us are content just to see it filled and stable. The latest weather favours staying east of the mark and we now plan to run to the east end of the Canaries and then southwest directly into the trades. We will review this tonight when the latest forecasts arrive from the race control. Yesterday's positions confirmed our thoughts that Mat has stormed away in The Blue Peter. She is an amazing boat with such attention to every last detail and a pleasure to lie next to at the marina in Cascais. We hope she goes on to win.

We are making the most of the cooler conditions to eat our soup supplies, and plan on a supper of pork in white wine saue followed by chocolate steamed pudding. Julie - I'm afraid Dave won't be losing any weight on this trip and Ollie may be filling out. The children have returned to their school work and both are now settled and back to their normal selves, swinging wildly between being best friends together before bickering and the immortal phrase "I'm telling...!"