Currently one day is just as the other. We will pass the Cape Verdes in a few hours. The other boats are in the vicinity but the last position update we received put us last. This impacts the moral on board. In addition it gets warmer every day. During the day it is almost impossible to sleep below deck. And even during the night we often wake up covered in sweat.

Disaster struck twice yesterday and we wrapped our spinnaker. Once in the afternoon and once during the night. In both situations we had to take the sail down, inspect it for damage, repack it and then hoist it again. This costs time and a lot of effort. And it is not good for moral either. We are doing all right but I guess everyone is thinking the same: Not again!

This morning our generator would again refuse to start. As the batteries were at the low limit, we imposed restrictions on the charging of personal devices. In the meantime we tried to resolve the issue. It is very good to have the maintenance team with all the technicians only one call away. They could not really fix the issue, but at least we could start the generator again after several unsuccessful attempts. So the batteries are charging and everything looks fine again. But the two hours of troubleshooting in the engine room left their mark. I feel completely wasted even though I got a pretty decent sleep in my last off watch. That is for these conditions.

Another day, another problem. I am curious as to what tomorrow has in stock for us. Apart from the problems it’s only the food which differentiates the days. We haven’t seen land for days and even other vessels are becoming increasingly scarce. But always get different meals and they are good, for the most part. There are dishes I don’t really like. But I guess everyone feels the same about that. There is now way to have something else every day which 20 people like. But every galley team is doing their best to make every meal a delight. At this point also a big compliment to Geoff who planned out all the meals and coordinated the shopping.

We are heading towards the equator. At this time there are still more than 1000 nautical miles to go. So enough time to catch a few of the other boats to not get last into the southern hemisphere.