Day 2 - We have the power but sailing in circles - skipper Pete

We had a rather frustrating second day. In the wind shadow of the Canaries we experienced unpredictaeble winds in terms of strength and direction and struggled to get a sailplan that would be successful for more than an hour.

If you've been following us on the yellow brick tracker you'll have noted some bizarre direction changes - that was all the messing around..... Things gradually stabilised and towards the end of the day we were making some decent speed with a poled out genoa. After some headscratching and a partially successful temporary fix on the alternator (which charges our batteries in addition to the solar and wind generator), I decided we should change it over to our spare, which crewman couch skillfully undertook with the boat rolling around.

Being males - and having refused to read the instructions or wiring diagrams before changing over - it initially didn't work. But a quick swap of some connections and we were in business. All the gadgets could now come back on again - watermaker, autopilot, freezer which has been making life on board much more pleasant ever since.

After Crewmen Cofone and Holland made 9 batches of curry in advance before leaving Las Palmas, Nacho revealed his dislike of spicy food, so we watched carefully how the Chicken Balti served for dinner would go down. A few glasses of water and a lot of sweating later he made it through. According to our esteemed chefs, the Balti is about 6/10 on the chilli scale, will report back once we've tested him on the Vindaloo and Jalfrezi (estimated 7/10 and 9/10 on the scale, respectively). Some of our fresh fruit & veg is starting to spoil so we have been eating/chucking as best we can to minimise waste. The trat box remains largely untouched (surprisingly) but I'm sure that won't last long. All the crew are in good spirits, with our watch pattern being 3 hours on and 6 hours off in pairs around the clock. Down time so far has mostly been spent sleeping, reading or lounging as everyone settles into the rhythm of the watch system.