Skipper's log: Joan Molloy (Ireland), co-skipper, 4myplanet

Good morning from 4myplanet! Sa tappe! it slams! we have been going upwind for the last couple of days and it feels like we have tested pretty much every wave in the Bay of Biscay; when the boat slams off a wave you lose contac t- with your chair, the deck or the beanbag, before slamming back into it a few moments later. it doesn't make for the most relaxing sailing (or typing) conditions! but were both still in good form, sleeping whenever we can as the beanbag is the comfiest place to be.

Today though we are happy with our progress, we have up quite a lot of miles on our competitors Pip and Ari, WITH OUR WESTERLY route so that is cool; we are both adjusting well to life on board, it already feels warm and it sailing without a jacket when its not too wet; but we are both still wearing our Dubarry boots, so it's not quite tropical yet. I haven’t even taken my boots off once since Sunday morning so i am dreading the smell...

We hope to be finished going upwind by Friday but there remains still a lot of weather decisions to make, so we are keeping an eye on this...that is the fun part, the strategy of the course and the excitement of getting a position report; the wind is very variable at the moment, but from a great direction for us so we are going as fast as we can south!

We are very sorry to see that Isabelle and Morgan had to pull in and we hope they are both ok; great to see Maxime back in the race, although a little dismayed at how easily he has caught back upwith us :-/

That's it for now!

Joan and Alexia