Jessica Daw’s Times Clipper leg from Rio to New York on Liverpool Clipper has taken on a new turn with a breeze coming from two directions. But it is doing precious little to cool the crew. Here is her latest account:

“We have wind – and not just the kind you get from eating copious amounts of kidney, butter and chick peas with every meal. 0400 local time this morning (Friday) saw the first lasting wind we have had since Tuesday. Hourly averages on the log have jumped from 1-2 miles to 8-9 miles and with a distance to go (DTG) of 1964 we can look forward to a few rounds of the history game – every hour when you check the log for a DTG , you need to name a significant event in history for the corresponding year. Well – it passes the time.

“Passing the time has become a serious business. In the Doldrums the deck was littered with pillows, bedding and flaked out people with their noses in books. Twice the skipper gave us the nod to take a swim as the boat was dead in the water, but the second time at sunset was cut short by the arrival of a swarm of jellyfish (no one on board seems to know the proper collective noun) almost invisible to the eye but packing a nasty sting.

“Events like this break the inevitable monotony of life on board, as does the arrival of an email from home. But otherwise you eat, go on watch for four hours, come off watch, eat again and then do your mother watch duties for a further four hours – clean the heads or make the bread – and then go to bed again. But bed is rarely a place of relief but rather a place where you sweat like a beast. It’s only really possible to stay in your bunk for a maximum of four hours before you are forced to seek breeze or shade on deck. You wake up each day knowing exactly how your time will be spent, the only variable is the weather. This makes it hard for a girl to know what to wear…usually the nearest thing.

“However we may be in for a surprise tonight as James (RTWer) and Tom (legger) are in charge of dinner. Eyes have been raised to heaven as James has still not lived down the time he made scrambled eggs with 45 eggs and half a pound of butter way back on leg four. One thing is for sure – we will not go hungry.”