Yesterday, Monday, was our first day in the southern hemisphere during which we clocked more than 600 miles—616 miles in 24 hours, to be exact. Will there be more days like this? A concrete answer is of course impossible, but one thing is already certain: we won't reach this goal during the day that will end today at 16:38 UT. Still, the wind is up, and we're flying the small gennaker and genoa staysail, with one reef in the main. We're still on port tack as we surf along the edge of the high-pressure system. But to top the 600-mile mark, it would need to blow really hard, with the needle rarely dropping below 23 or 24 knots. Yesterday afternoon the winds were weaker and further aft, a direction that is not ideal for speed. For a long time we considered putting up the big gennaker, but Lionel, the skipper, preferred to play it safe due to the rough seas, which have been bouncing us around for 24 hours already. And then Lionel must surely have the gift of sensing the wind. This slow spell, during which we were still able to move along at around 23 knots on average, only lasted a few hours. Then the wind came back, as powerful as before, and the sail of choice was the small gennaker. We were thus spared two time-consuming sail changes. Nice work Lionel. Tomorrow we should get close to 600 miles, and if I'm wrong, which is very possible, that would be even better.

Goodnight

Nicolas Raynaud