SAILING/World Race: Damian Foxall is co-skipper with Jean-Pierre Dick on Paprec-Virbac in the two-handed, non-stop Barcelona World Race

As we celebrate 50 consecutive days in the lead of the race, two major firsts took place over the last week. Both were welcome, though one entailed a certain amount of trepidation, and the other - well, what can I say but that it was about time it happened.

We reached the Fernando de Noronha scoring gate off the northeast coast of Brazil and shortly after made our second crossing of the Equator.

As we began our battle with the Doldrums, emerging from this tricky zone allowed us to think, for the first time, about the finishing-line, now just over 2,500 miles away.

Until now, we haven't allowed ourselves either to get excited or become distracted about the prospect of completing this 25,000-mile marathon; there's too much at stake before then.

It's simply been a case of sailing two stages at a time: tackling the current one and then positioning ourselves for the next part.

But that's over now, and we have got to start thinking about reaching Barcelona - it's that close. Next Monday's log could be the last, and it all comes down to the breeze in the North Atlantic.

True, we have managed to keep our lead over Hugo Boss. We even saw it build to almost 900 miles, just less than what we had rounding Cape Horn.

Although we were prepared for it to happen, they never did manage to breach the 500-mile barrier, though that may yet happen.

Right now, they've been experiencing what we went through at the start of last week, slogging upwind, and though they've freed off a bit and gained on us while we were in the Doldrums, they too will have to face this zone, so our lead could open up again.

Yet I'm still not certain about what will happen to us in the North Atlantic. There's lots of potential for the lead to be eaten away, and while we are thinking more and more about the finish, it's still a considerable distance off.

With Hugo Boss so far behind, there's no way we can consider covering tactics, so our strategy remains twofold: one, keep the boat moving, clicking off the miles toward the finish, and two, keep the boat intact, though it's going to be hard as it will be mostly upwind to Gibraltar.

We think we have less than 10 days of sailing left, and while we're pretty happy with our food and diesel rationing, we're by no means flush and cannot simply switch on the auto-pilot or the fleet (satellite comms) whenever we feel like it.

But sailing in these warm latitudes and calm waters, we can stand longer watch routines and get more maintenance done off-watch than before. When it's warm, the whole boat comes alive and cleaning is an essential chore.

Which leads me to the second first from the last week - and an admission really.

In spite of frequent applications of baby wipes and soap under full thermals and oilskins, the last week also saw my first proper wash since leaving Barcelona 75 days ago.

We've just been a bit too busy really.

Hopefully time will allow for a few more ablutions before we reach the dock, as I'm not quite sure what Suzy-Ann and especially Oisín would make of the Paprec-Virbac version of l'air du temps.