Just over one week into the AG2R double-handed, transatlantic race, with rations low onboard, Phil Sharp and David Krizek have been reduced to eating any flying friends that happen to land on deck! Albeit seemingly willingly! 1,700 miles into the race, most of the fleet have passed the island of Madeira and the majority of them are heading out to the west, waiting to dive south into the illustrious trade winds, with just 4 boats taking the southerly option. Phil Sharp had made the choice to go west before many and has been rewarded with a climb of 6 places in the ranking since last Friday's report!

"It's all good onboard on Day 7 - we've got some good wind at last and are now caning it downwind towards Madeira at 11kts. This feels like 90 kts relative to the average speeds over the last couple of days. We'll hopefully round Maderia at about 1000 tomorrow.  We had Sopra Groupe in visual today who then gybed off south an hour before we did. We´re pushing hard and it's gonna be a long night but we're keen to get past them quickly and move onwards."

"Also our cabin has just been attacked by a canary. I had to to flush it out by crawling into the front of the boat and shouting at it loads to scare it out. It was lucky to escape with its life as we are hungry guys and relish a bit of protein!"

Phil