GREEN DRAGON LEG ONE DAY 16: received 26.10.08 0955 GMT
Anybody who knows me well will tell you that I am not a great one for sitting around drinking tea, nor does making tea figure too highly up my agenda. Having said that, I do like a nice cup of tea every now and then. There aren’t many luxuries on a Volvo 70 so a nice cup of tea goes down well onboard if you are prepared to do battle with the galley to make one.
Twice now I have done this, only to make the tea, go back on deck, sit down and find out that the tea bags are some kind of green or herbal tea - plus powdered milk of course. Tom kindly made the tea going off watch last night and I was treated to green tea with cranberry juice plus milk!
I can’t tell you the disappointment this brings. Kim (who by the way does a fantastic job sorting out all our food and clothing etc) if you are listening, herbal tea bags may be OK for girls and hippies, but have no place on this boat. I’ve just been through and thrown every dodgy tea bag overboard to prevent this happening again.
Back to the race and not much has happened really. Ericsson 4 and Puma continue to sail faster than us and we have held off Telefónica Black. All our efforts are going into the onslaught that lies ahead. The router suggests we will do the final 3400 miles in 7 days which is nearly 500 miles per day. Considering we are in light winds all day today that can only mean some big days ahead. Reliability will be key. Tom Braidwood has discovered some sheared bolts in the steering system which could have caused trouble and he is now servicing the generator. In 24 hours time it will be hard to do anything onboard. I have prepared my dry suit, boots and safety kit and caught up on a lot of sleep.
For everyone at home this race is about to get interesting as all the boats behind get the wind further north and cut the corner on the leaders. The boats should aline north south and it will look like a fairly equal dash for Cape Town. Those that do not keep up with the pace of the front will drop off the back of the system and lose hundreds of miles. It’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen to us. Don’t expect too much typing from me over the next week.
Ian Walker - skipper