Atlantic Diary: The number of crews abandoning after capsizing has made Paul Gleeson and Tori Holmes cautious amid unpredictable and treacherous weather and, though frustrated by recent delays, the pair get a huge psychological lift from messages from friends and family.

It's brilliant to hear Gearóid Towey and Ciarán Lewis arrived home safely and had such a good reception. Now we hear that two more crews have had to abandon after capsizing.

The girls in American Fire apparently got rolled and the boat didn't self-right. It seems it was at night and they were sleeping, they must have opened their back hatch for air.

With the New Zealand team in Team Sun Latte, the shark attack earlier in the race must have weakened the boat. I heard they were still trying to save it, but then it capsized and they had to be rescued.

For us it has been a tough week. Early on we were getting pushed south when we wanted to go west and it was demoralising. It was a very hard couple of days. The two of us found it hard to be on the oars. We didn't row those nights - we didn't want to be accentuating our progress south.

We discussed the possibility that if we were to keep getting this weather and kept getting pushed south we might have to finish in Barbados or one of the other islands. And we didn't want to be the only team not to finish in Antigua, although we did think that might have to be done. That's not looking as likely now. We have more easterly winds now and we're heading in the right direction at least.

The weekend wasn't bad in terms of progress. But it's very rough and everyone seems to be feeling it. Some teams aren't rowing at night.

It's hard when the waves are constantly breaking in on you. Everything gets wet and the chafing is just agonising. You can't dry out your shorts. Putting on wet shorts - ugh. Tori and myself have blisters everywhere.

Yesterday we didn't make so much mileage. We got tossed around, and although we weren't close to capsizing we were getting tipped. Then last night there was a swell and a lot of water coming in, and it was very, very dark, so it was hard to guide the boat. You have no point of reference and you can't see where the swell is coming from. So we decided not to row. After all the capsizes maybe we're getting a little paranoid. We went with our gut instinct. We've made a few good calls up to now.

Tori got thrown off her seat again. She knocked her ribs off the gunwale. We don't think she has broken anything, but she's quite bruised. She was in tears, but she picked herself off the deck and screamed: "I'm not letting it stop me. We're going to get to Antigua." She cried for most of the shift, but she wouldn't take a rest. She was saying: "I'm finishing my shift. I'm not going into the cabin."

Between the weather out here and our lack of progress it hasn't been easy. We've got a bag of letters with us from friends and family, they act as pick-me-ups. I was reading one from Dad. I had never felt so low in my life, and it was a really touching letter. I was in tears at the end of it.

Apart from the miserableness, it is everything combined. We were so looking forward to making the halfway stage this week - having that to report in this diary - but then we've got pushed south and the weather has been awful and everything is breaking in on top of you.

We're in better spirits today, but we're probably looking at Sunday now before we get to halfway. It's been frustrating; every time you feel you're getting closer something seems to go pear-shaped. But with the capsizes in the last week it has reinforced the message of staying safe first. Keeping our hatches closed and that kind of stuff.

When bad things are happening other boats - and there are three or four doubles out now - we seem to get a flood of messages from home. People who are following us see it and say: "Oh my God, this is dangerous."

I suppose with those boats going out we can't be last if we stay in the race.

Tori is still interested in this shadow behind us when we row. Now she's convinced she doesn't know who it might be. Maybe she's just starting to go a bit mad! I rang the support boat during the week and asked about the weather. By now we're supposed to have a reasonably good following swell, but we haven't seen that. They said it just seems to be a freak year. They haven't seen anything like it before.

(In an interview with Liam Gorman)

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