Leg 4: 28th July

Position at 2000 local time, 28th July 2009, 46.27N, 41.22W

Today was the first of clear skies and sunshine after a long period of mist and fog. It was accompanied by the wind and boat speed falling to zero, but this precipitated the highlight of the day - a swim in the middle of the North Atlantic at a depth of 4,500m! Most of the crew went for a dip in the ocean, while a few stayed on board to film and take photos. The brief lull also gave many an opportunity to wash and do some laundry, while all the oilskins were hung out to dry after the rain of the last few days.

Swimming was followed by one of the many culinary delights of White Watch, the mother watch for the day. A tuna pasta bake with an improvised sauce of powdered milk, tinned mushrooms and some surprise jars of nacho dips went down well with everyone and the two trays were polished off with no wastage.

Several more hours of low winds followed before things finally picked up and we set some sails and gathered speed. Unfortunately this was accompanied by the thick fog that we have experienced for the last few days, although this is a small price to pay compared to our earlier lack of wind which had allowed Peter Von Danzig to take first place from us in Class D, as we found out in our latest race update. Things were going well until Simon Turvey, watch officer of Blue Watch took to the foredeck during the first dog watch at 1700 and managed to drop the cruising chute straight into the water, distracting mother watch from their happy hour preparations as they had to pack the wet sail away. Thankfully their canapés of mushroom and onion quiche were already well underway so were not too badly affected by the disturbance, and the meringues - an epic creation, and possibly a Project first - had already gone in the oven. The meringue preparation had taken up a large proportion of the early afternoon with up to five people, including the mate Andy Wright, involved in the Paul Steptoe's innovative solution to the beating of the egg whites using a hacksaw handle and string to rotate the whisk at high speed before a plastic bag and part of a cereal box were used to pipe out the swirls ready for three hours of baking in time for dessert - with lemon curd sandwiched between and on top of a bed of chocolate angel delight. The meringues were the piéce de resistance of a delicious dinner consisting of chorizo and meatballs on rice, served with kidney beans, cabbage, mushrooms and carrots.

The time between happy hour and dinner played host to the first of a series of sailing theory lectures run by Andy Wright. His explanation of sail choice and sail trim gave those involved a much enhanced understanding of the sails that we use and why we choose certain combinations for different wind speeds and directions. Several more lessons are scheduled for the following few days, including navigation, knots and ropework, and the theory of anchoring.

Monday night had seen the beautiful clear skies that were to follow in the morning and Red Watch were treated to a fabulous sunset and sunrise during their 2000-0000 and 0400-0800 watches. Blue Watch claim to have seen bats while they were on watch between midnight and 4am, although there was some debate over whether they were in fact bats, or just sea birds. Rupert had a massive four hour stint on the helm, while Tom West provided entertainment with his one-and-a-half hour story. The sailing all night was fast but the sea was quite calm allowing us to glide through the water and give sleeping crew members a decent night's rest.

The end of the night watches was greeted by the first of mother watch's surprises - an omelette of frankfurters and onions making a nice change from the scrambled egg that we've had every morning. Paul Steptoe spent the morning fixing the toilet roll dispensers in the heads using some of the many pencils we have on board, while on deck the wind dropped right down until we were stationary and the skipper and mate made the call for a Mid-Atlantic swim.

As I write this, we have managed to find some wind again and are currently speeding along at 10 knots in a Force 7. The breeze had picked up just before dinner and has really boosted moral as we continue on towards Belfast.