22nd August: We're under way! We left Mayflower Marina, Plymouth at 11.15am

24th August:  Cath spoke to David via the sat phone.  Had a bad couple of days due to sea sickness but all OK now.  In the Bay of Biscay and  making good progress.

25th August: Everyone has fully recovered from the bout of sea sickness and now enjoying the sail.  David sounded pretty chilled and was pleased with the way the boat was behaving.

26th August: They had a bit of a rough night last night – gale force winds and stormy seas but they’ve made it through The Bay of Biscay under sail.  The mainsail suffered some damage overnight so they’ve had to make a pitstop at La Coruna on the north tip of Spain to get it repaired.  They hope to have the repair done by tomorrow morning and aim to set off again around lunchtime. Everyone still in high spirits despite being a battered and bruised. David managed to fall over and knock the bathroom door off it’s hinges

27th August: Spent the day at La Coruna getting the sail fixed and making repairs to the boat.  Set sail for Las Palmas at 5pm.

28th August: now  about twenty miles off the Spanish coast in bright sunshine, sailing down wind averaging 8/9 knots. Sally is down below making bread, Bob is watching a DVD and I'm on deck keeping watch. Sue and Lindsey are asleep, having been on watch from 4 am to 8 am. I think we are about half way to Las Palmas.

30th August: Weather fine, wind NE4, Sea state slight.  580 miles to go! Received the following message from Parson Jack today: "Well here we are on the last leg of our epic journey; 500 odd miles to go, heading out into the Atlantic towards The Canaries. Unfortunately we have no wind today and are only making 5/6 knots. Unfortunately we are having to go about twenty degrees off course to take advantage of the little wind we have and we are on a beam to broad reach. Lindsay has just baked two loaves of bread, Sue has retired hurt having completed her 0400 to 0800 watch. Yesterday I completed the transformation of the sea berth from storage to sleeping by fitting a lea cloth. Bob spent the day unblocking the forward loo, nice job!!! We now have three proper sea berths with lea cloths and all the stores are located in the forward cabin along with the spare Genoa and storm sails. The watch system we are using is very good. There are two watches; me and Sally, port watch and Sue and Lindsay starboard watch. We do 0800 to noon, followed by 4 hours off, then 2 hours 1600 to 1800 where we prepare the evening meal then two hours off coming back on watch at 2000 till midnight. Bob then takes the midnight to 0400 alone. This means that both watches get an 8 hour sleep period. Bob is not included but is on call 247. The melamine bowls are working well, but wine glasses are a disaster; we all managed to spill our drinks!"  Just spoken to them again but unfortunately there is not much wind so not making great progress but still in high spirits!

31st August:  Weather overcast, wind NW3, seastate slight, speed only 4 to 5 knots.  Could do with a bit more wind!
1st September:  Well here we are ten days at sea 321 miles from Las Palmas, eta lunchtime on Thursday. We have no wind and have been motoring since 1100 yesterday. The problem is fuel. Hopefully we will get wind today. We have settled into a routine now and the watch pattern is working well, all of us getting at least 8 hours sleep each day. Sally and Lindsay have porridge which has the consistency of concrete. The pre-prepared meals cooked by Lindsay and Sue which we brought with us are delicious, yesterday we had Chilli with rice; fish pie, sausage casserole and chicken curry to go! The bread making is also going to plan. We have discovered we have more sails on board than we originally thought; Sally pegged her bloomers out to dry yesterday and the proved vey effective spiknickers!

2nd September:  The sun is shining, the wind is blowing force 4 and we are bowling along on a broad reach at a good 6 to 7 knots. All is good We had an amazing day yesterday; a pod of about a hundred dolphins swam with us for about twenty minutes, circling the boat and surfing on our bow wave, just awesome. The major disaster of the day; we've run out of kitchen roll. Happy hour started earlier; at three and could be even earlier today, hic.  181 miles to go!

3rd September:  Made it to Las Palmas at 13:50!!!! We had a fantastic sail overnight; 7 knots straight down wind under a full moon. The big eat was very successful, there is only a solitary 9 inch pizza in the freezer. We've run out of water, kitchen roll and crisps. There girls dangled their feet in the Atlantic with a great deal of hilarity and screaming. I woke this morning to great pandemonium ; Sue and Lindsay decided to gybe and we ended up with an Arapaho; don't ask!, which took some sorting out. Our plan for the next two days is to have some R&R today, cleaning and maintenance Friday and Saturday. Flight home is at 8 arriving Gatwick 0040 Sunday. 12 days to get here and four hours to get back!!

4th September:  We are enjoying the sun and finding our way around, the chandlers and supermarket are fantastic, putting the UK to shame, the marina is very good and we have a great location (not far from the bars) and restaurants, we are the 8th yacht to arrive for the ARC.
Our last watch, Lindasy and I (Sue) came on watch as usual at 0400, the wind was being kind and we were getting between 7/8 knots, sadly no stars but the moon was full, after Lindsay had done the first log at 0500 and made the obligatory mug of hot chocolate, she sighted what we first though a ship dead ahead, but eventually decided (as it didn't move) it was the la Isleta lighthouse on Gran Canaria, it was quite an emotional moment for me, I shall miss my 0400 watch with Lindsay, we would do stars then wait for our special planet (mars we think) to come up around 5ish, day break got later the closer we got as did the sunrise, we would put the world to rights, and looked forward to seeing David and Sally at 0800 with a cup of tea followed by breakfast.
And then we were here, its not quite sunk in yet but I'm sure it will on our 4 hour flight home, The whole trip took 12 days 1 hour and 10 minutes over 1600 miles, this includes a 23 hour stop over in La Coruna. The Champagne went down very well, many thanks to all who supplied it, also thank you to everyone for your presents, cards and good wishes.

On that note we say farewell until November.

Love to you all xxx