You have your good days and you have your bad days. Given that we've had a decent helping of the latter I'm pleased to report on two good un's. The wind is holding, and, dare I say it, we may have found the elusive trade winds. On top of that we are, for the first time all trip, pointing in the direction we want to go in! To cap this all off, we have finally (FINALLY) passed half way - and we'll quietly skip over the fact that it's taken us two weeks to do so. All in all, a good time to be on board the once again, good ship Nutcracker. I can confirm, a salt water shave is not the most pleasant thing you will ever do, but is still more preferable to looking like a badger. And an update on the on board hygiene situation (I know you're all dying to know) - if you ignore the occasional odd smell, it's good! We have all changed our sheets and clean t-shirts have been sourced and washing up in salt water is now down to a fine art. Fear not, standards are being maintained. That said, I have never looked at a bottle of hand sanitiser with so much love. We had bolognaise for dinner, all of our collective footie teams won and the great nutcracker water shortage has eased, so we've got a lot going for us at the moment. Even the cabin boy looks chuffed. If we could start climbing the rankings, it would be like Christmas come early! The crew will be treated to a beer (!!!!) on the afterdeck in the sunset as payment for their hard work, I've promised the second half will be easier. So I'm sorry, if you were tuning in for more trials, tribulations and tests. You'll be disappointed - we've managed to avoid ripping any more sails and even the flying fish look surprised to see us. However, I'm sure normal service will be resumed shortly. Skip xx