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

At last! Finally, we have reached the Trade Winds off the coast of Brazil and we can look forward to improving conditions over the next week.

Still up front, still in the lead and still with a good margin over Hugo Boss in pursuit.

Last week's log predicted our lead would drop to just a few hundred miles, and our previous thousand miles has indeed been halved as expected.

But my mood a week ago was born of stress, and it took the arrival of the trades for our outlook to improve.

For sure, Alex Thompson and Andrew Cape are hot on our heels, currently around 550 miles astern, but that's as close as they've got. No sign of a risky flyer deep into the Atlantic by them, thankfully, as they've opted to cover our track and await a weather break.

They almost got it when a depression delivered fast, reaching conditions for the big black boat, while the same weather system saw us beating upwind. But we've just punched through a semi-stationery cold front and now it's their turn.

We've just spent the last week punching through big seas with waves that just got rougher and rougher as we jumped from crest to crest.

In the end, we carried on with reduced sail area rather than become exhausted from constant changes.

It was hard on us until Friday, when the gale started to ease. So bad, in fact, that I only managed one phone call home and just a couple of emails.

On the other side is warmer weather, and though initially it is more slow, upwind work, the breeze is steady and soon we'll be able to free off for slightly faster reaching angles as we head up to the scoring-gate at Fernando de Noronha about a thousand miles away - the weekend at the latest.

The improved weather has lifted our spirits enormously. The layers of clothing are being peeled off and tomorrow I expect to be trading in my sea-boots for deck-shoes. It's going to be shorts and T-shirt-sailing for sure, but the rum and cokes will have to wait until Barcelona.

As the miles to the finish are ticking away, with just over 4,000 remaining, our thoughts and discussions centre more and more on keeping the boat together as the tactical options rely simply on staying ahead and moving forward.

Hugo Boss, on the other hand, will face fewer and fewer chances to get ahead of us and will be relying on gear failure for us for that to happen.

At the end of the day, our boat has been sailing non-stop since the start while they have had a two-day pitstop and mini-refit.

Here's how we expect the next week or so to play out.

On current pace, we expect to be ahead by a similar distance when we reach Fernando de Noronha and the completion of our circumnavigation.

After this, the Doldrums beckon once more, but at the this time of year and for a north-bound crossing we don't expect this to be to much of a drama.

We will probably slow considerably, and if we are becalmed, we hope it won't be for very long.

Once into the North Atlantic another tactical choice presents itself which could be the last major opportunity for Hugo Boss to jump ahead or into a challenging position.

Option A would be to re-trace our early track and sail up the coast of Africa past the Canary Islands. Definitely shorter, but will there be breeze?

Option B would be to continue north, almost as far as the Azores before turning in towards Madeira and then to the Straits of Gibraltar and what we expect to be a light stage up to Barcelona.

That decision is still two weeks away, and before then we must keep moving, keep the boat together and keep ticking off the miles.

We have just enough food, gas and diesel for three weeks, and our game is simply to keep ahead of Alex and Capey and be ahead when they get their last throw of the dice.

In conversation with David Branigan