Hoping to get kidnapped by Jack Sparrow

Sam Davies reports from the Transat Jacques Vabre

Artemis is galloping along through the Caribbean Sea now.

The search for the Black Pearl begins.... I told Sidney that if I get kidnapped by Captain Jack Sparrow, not to try to fight but to let me go ;-)

Out here we live a spartan life: no lights, no hairdryers (!) - electricity is down to a minimum. Likewise with water - we get by with about 4l each per day. We shower in sea-water!

The thing is, although it is little, it is also esssential to live, and to keep Artemis going at full-speed.

Unfortunately, Artemis is not equipped with ways of harnessing natural energy - I didn't have time to change that - which is a shame, as I am sure we would get all we need through solar panels and a hydrogenerator.

Instead, we use diesel to generate electricity. Unfortunately, as the race is taking longer than planned, we are getting low. So, to make it to the finish, all electricity is switched off nearly all the time.

Yesterday we were sailing without even our instruments during the day!

For water, we also have a problem that we are going too fast for the watermaker to be able to prime itself!! So yesterday Sidney and I spent a fair amount of time doing some DIY (again!) and we made a hose with the ballast scoop attatched to a bilge pump tube, that we used to fill the water-lock continuously for the watermaker.... Then we watched over the watermaker to make sure it behaved itself.... it all seems like milking a cow in a strange kind of way! Luckily we managed to fill a good supply of bottles, so we are no longer thirsty!

Well, given all these jobs and tasks, and the fact that steering Artemis under spinnaker in 25 knots of wind is pretty physical, I am off to recover for an hour in the bunk!

Sam x