As we race West at an average of 8 knots plus, we are often joined by pods of dolphins, up to 70 at a time. After an aerial display of leaping out of the water, which none of us have yet managed to catch on camera, they “play” in the water by the bow of the boat, a wonderful sight.

The winds have been kind and our last two “24 hour runs” have been 198 and 201 miles. Those of you with Porsche 911’s may think “well I could do that in an hour and a half”, but the 911 does not fare so well on water. No comments please from “motor yachts” (aka stink pots).

The results issued this morning show us at 4th of 19 in class and 17th overall of 250 boats. This is not entirely reliable as some boat positions are taken at midnight and some at 4 am, which sounds insignificant but in one period last night we covered 38 miles in four hours.

Kealoha8 is as ever performing beautifully. Last night in winds of 28 knots (32 miles per hour) she glided along gracefully at 10 knots plus in great style. She remains intact with no damage or breakdowns, for which we are very grateful as there are few repair facilities mid Atlantic.

With so many Yorkshire men on board such a gracious yacht we also need to eat in style and so we called upon Williams Farm Kitchens of Hornsea, owned by David’s son in law, to provision us. Their dry cured back bacon and homemade pork sausages are to die for.

Our prizewinner yesterday was young Tim who has been incredibly enthusiastic, a key member of the foredeck team and cheerfully undertaken all that has been asked of him.

Fortunately we remain isolated from the news. It is probably reasonable to guess that the politicians are still focussing on votes rather than finding a sustainable solution to the profligate mountain of debt in Europe. We could tune into the World Service on our SSB, but do we really want to spoil and excellent piece of sailing with news of incompetent politicians and avaricious bankers?

Onto happier subjects all is well on Kealoha8 with no kit damaged despite the huge loads, no injuries apart from a few tiny plasters on Billy and all in good spirits.

All good wishes from all on Kealoha 8