The previous blog talked about '......the north west coast of Shetland.....' what was meant was '....the north east coast of Shetland....., and no we didn't go the wrong way around..honest.

Leaving the tree-less, rugged, yet fertile landscape of Shetland for the northern atlantic feels to some of us a real adventure, as if into uncharted waters.

We are on our way to something called Sula Sgeir. It's now 80 miles (10 -12hrs) away, in the middle of nowhere between the Faroes, Scotland and Lewis. With a name that resembles 'scary' this sounds like a mark to treat with respect.

The mood on the boat is really good. This may have something to do with the rapid disappearance of any form of decorum as personal hygiene goes the way of the new year resolution. Or perhaps the emerging beards creating the appearance of a boat full of rather unsavoury Santa's, or a band of exiled trolls who recently stumbled drunkenly through a market flogging Henri Lloyd and Musto seconds .

Really sad news, our two favourite lettuce have had to 'leave the building'. Following a split vote these two extremely limp and some would say 'past their prime' examples were taken off the menu. Resembling a scene from 'castaway' the affectionately named 'leticia and lolita(she's the more attractive one according to Nick)' were last seem bobbing seductively towards an irish trawler anticipating better treatment.

As the wind has reduced through the day we have changed from the nr3 to the medium heavy number 1 and latterly at 1700hrs to the light number 1. This latest change took 12minutes, a standard set by red watch who have laid down the gauntlet. It seems the competitIon is no longer only with the other boats.

The exploding kicker (or vang to some) has been fixed. This literally went with a bang on day one when we put in an over energetic Jibe. Good fun but careless of us and bloody dangerous. Being up on the fore deck this was one of those 'underwear changing' moments in life.

Expletives from Steve (co-owner) and Gareth (skipper) in the cockpit revealed some concern that it could be expensive both in terms of cash and speed.

A semi-fix was sorted immediately. Today, Gareth produced one of several margarine tubs full of bits including a replacement pulley block and improved the fix without us interrupting our race.

The kicker 'by the way' is the combined shock absorber and pulley that runs from the base of the mast diagonally to the base of the boom. This helps steady the head sail and boom.,

That's it till tomorrow at 3am when we'll be off our 1000 till 0200hrs shift,

Ken Allison,

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device