D+2 Laundry

The winds and seas are now very quiet. All the crew got a solid night's rest and the air has a certain warmness to it now we are south of the Mediterranean. We have discarded the jumpers in favour of t-shirts. The winds are fickle and we keep swapping between genoa and spinnaker as it shifts mischievously, but still have "Mr. Red Spinnaker" for company ahead. We've committed to routing through the Canaries as James doesn't fancy the pounding we'll take if we tackle the forecast 20kt westerlies further north. We've also had our second minor repair - a small tear to the spinnaker.

Hygiene at sea is paramount - poor hygiene can lead to food poisoning which can sweep through the entire crew causing incapacitation and dehydration. Fortunately, we can be generous with our water with desalination aboard, but still prefer to use a salt tap for rinsing when possible.

We ran the water maker for the first time today. It runs off the engine, turning salt water into fresh but has the added advantage that the engine heats a tank of hot water up for us and tops up the battery charge. Whilst this was happening, the crew enjoyed the luxury of a hot shower each off the back of the boat and we did our laundry. As the weather was so slight, the crew decided on a celebratory beer over a lunch of cured ham, artisan cheese and the last of the fresh bread supplies.