Reports 5 January

11th - Steve White, Toe in the Water (GBR): It's been absolutely ideal, we've just had really stable conditions and been reaching along quite nicely without needing to do anything at all really, it's really easy sailing and eating miles up quite fast too. At the moment the wind's all over the shop, I'm doing a very wiggly course because it can't quite make its mind up. But we're heading roughly in the right direction so I'm happy enough, I'll take it however it comes. It's really quite nice, it makes a very pleasant change from being beaten to death with 50 knots every other day!

I can only see the top bit of the boat, but that looks okay, it's washed fairly clean on a regular basis. Downstairs is a bit in chaos - it's quite like a student flat at the moment, I'm trying to dry out a load of things so there's clothing spread all over the place, bits of the gooseneck repair and I had some plumbing to do, but I'm gradually tidying up. The sails look good as new, other than the fact that some of the branding has got a bit faded, so we're in pretty good shape really.