36' 35S 140'41E

Currently careering along with a speed over the ground (SOG) of 12 knots, we have begun our evening watch (6-10pm) with the flanker up after the promo tripped itself and the on-watch went for a speedy sail change - no damage done luckily. It is a fantastic evening and we have a strong current to help us along, coupled with a fair wind and clear skies. The BP Crew, Alaska Joe and Warren, are settling in well and we have the warm memory of all those supporters cheering us on our way out of Sydney (so a big hello and thanks to them!) The morning was not so rewarding as we began with light winds, then zero boat speed (see photo) before a frustrating struggle with the lightweight kite before the breeze gradually filled in. Kite-packs down below have been hot and humid affairs, more reminiscent of leg 1 than the Southern Ocean, and crew have been struggling to sleep with just their sleeping-bag liners for cover. We will make the most of this, however, as it will no doubt be freezing all too soon! Hopefully, though, this time, we will not have a return to the 'war years' with shortages of gas, water and heat, but will have plenty of hot-chocolate drinks and cake to get us through!

As I type this the scheds have just come in and whilst at lunchtime we were way down the pack, we now lie in fourth, with just four miles to the leaders Me To You, two and a half miles to Imagine it. Done and less than a miles to Barclays Adventurer. David's quote over dinner ('Thai Chicken Curry') 'Well, it's lucky I didn't string myself up at lunchtime!' says it all. It is very easy to get bound up in the position reports and to start doubting ourselves! After spending the morning wishing that we had tacked in towards the coast along with the likes of Spirit of Sark and BG SPIRIT, who at dawn were over ten miles ahead, we then spent the afternoon with more pressure in our sails than the pack further west enjoyed and they waited and waited for the breeze to come whilst we zoomed off into the brightening day.

In summary, this morning it looked like what we had planned for would not work our way at all, whilst in fact the plan has come together nicely and we are now pretty well-placed for the next 24 hours. Overnight the strategy is to try to fight our way into second place, which is where we need to be if we are to fulfil aim one of being in the top three by Tasmania. Watch this space.

Naomi Cudmore

Leaving Sydney

The start of leg four - for most of us the 'dreaded leg'. We did the Southern Ocean and rounded Cape Horn and while it had its high-points, for the most part it was pretty miserable. With leg 2 in our minds it will come as no surprise that the thought of another 35-40 days of the same and probably worse does not get us leaping around the deck all excited. The start day began as usual with us all meeting up for a crew breakfast. The friends and family that came to visit us in Sydney were also there and it's a time when we say our farewells. Then it was all down to the boat, those final hugs and wishes of 'good luck' and 'safe sailing' to all the other crew we've met in training and since and then it's wait for our turn to slip our lines and head off for the start. It's difficult to describe how wonderful it is to see so many people waving and cheering us off but the shouts of 'I love you' really stir the emotions and though relatively hardened sailors now, for some holding back the tears is just as difficult as when we left Portsmouth.

We circle and manoeuvred BP Explorer trying to find the best start position and warmed ourselves up for when everything has to go just right. All the time our supporters circled and cheered. The hard core BP girls Sarah, Claire and Ruth clung on for dear life as their inflatable bounced and crashed over the waves. They didn't tire of waving and smiling and we didn't tire of seeing them and waving back. Soon the minutes were counting down and we roared towards the start line. There were yachts to our left and right as the start gun fired to signal the start of leg four. We were in an excellent position and crossed the line just after Team Stelmar. There was no time to savour the moment as we prepared the pole for a spinnaker hoist. The yachts behind us, Barclays Adventurer and Me To You, were flying the kites already and there was no time to lose. We overtook Team Stelmar to take the lead around the first mark and as I write this log we are holding our position - all in all we couldn't have asked for a better start on our voyage to Cape Town.

My Mum Brenda surprised me by flying to Sydney to meet me as I arrived and stayed to see me off, a massive challenge for her as she hates flying. I'm sure I can speak for everyone who's friends and family have visited on the stopovers so far when I say, thank you, you being there meant such a lot, I love you and don't worry about us on this leg. The more we do the more secure we feel about our abilities and what we are capable of achieving. We've grown as a crew and have learned to support and look after each other. With this crew I'm sure this leg will turn out not as one to be dreaded but one to be savoured.
John Bass

Sydney Harbour - just after crossing the finish line

At the end the tension was unbearable! During the night, despite a storming run and a top speed of 16.4 knots, we were hammered by over three knots of current and lost valuable miles to the three yachts in front, as well as to Pindar, who were hot on our heels. We awoke to the news that the fight was now on, not to chase third place, but to protect fourth.

Sadly, it seems that Graham's (Pindar) enthusiasm to get to the church before Laura (BP Explorer) on Friday gave them an extra push! After sailing on the very edge all morning with the flanker up we were just a few hundred metres from Pindar as we approached the line with Sydney Opera House to port.

Sydney Harbour Bridge hoved into view and we clean ran out of time, being pipped to the post by minutes! Well done to Pindar - a battle well won - and a wonderful story for Graham and Laura to tell their children! Bring on the beer!

35' 18S 154' 24E

I've managed to slip the chains holding me to the shrouds trimming and have sneaked below to write this log. As we get closer to Sydney the pressure to get the most out of the boat increases. David is on an almost 24 hour vigil and only goes to his bunk when he is convinced the on-watch are focused and sailing as fast as they can. I know that any moment he'll appear at the communications table and ask me to go on deck again. I don't mind - it's all exciting stuff. Positions have been trading places throughout this leg but
as time to gain any lost miles diminishes final positions are getting more and more predictable. The last big shake-up occurred today as the most northerly yachts were caught in a wind hole and at one point were actually dragged backwards by the current. We had positioned ourselves further south and while we suffered the same light winds we were able to hold our position.



The really northerly yachts suffered most, former leaders VAIO are now some 30 miles behind. We currently reside in fourth place behind BG SPIRIT, SAIC La Jolla and Me To You. We can see SAIC La Jolla and Me To You and our initial goal is to get in front of them. This will at least put us in joint first overall with BG SPIRIT though as the last leg showed, final approach surprises are not out of the question and until we cross the line, first place is never an impossibility. As night falls, the navigation lights of our foe appear and a light drizzle sends the watch scurrying below for their foulies, our arrival in Sydney starts to creep into our thoughts.

I have a special reason to want to get in tomorrow as it's my birthday and I'd like to spend at least a part of it with a cold beer in my hand. On the nature front tuna would you believe? Chased by a pod of dolphins they leaped from the surface and darted in all directions to escape. Now we know what it must be like for BG SPIRIT, SAIC La Jolla and Me To You.

36o19S 156o03E

The wind has suddenly gone light and fickle yet again and John is stuck on deck - trimming, trimming, trimming. So, in his absence, I will try to fill in for him - we apologise for the late log! It sometimes seems that BP Explorer is railroaded into its own private windless tunnel; repeatedly now, after painstakingly trimming and helming our way up behind the yacht in front (in this case Me to You), we have parked under cloud and lolled in the vacuum which generally accompanies the non-raining variety of these squat black formations which are busy sucking up all the air underneath them and halting us dramatically in our tracks. Me to You, meanwhile, have just this minute sailed clean away, opening up the distance which we closed, with hour after hour of effort, in one fell swoop. So it is a case of fight, fight, fight, then running 'bang' into a brick wall! One definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It has been well proven that we must all have a touch of the lunatic in us to be here doing the race, but the competition is infectious and we cannot do anything except keep going. We will not give up. And hopefully sooner rather than later our windless tunnel will take a few steps to left or right! As we speak BG SPIRIT is steaming in behind us - we think (although in the dark it is hard to tell) with a spinnaker up. Let's hope that the wind returns before they get here.

We had our own special flotilla of supporters this afternoon, when we were fighting it out with Samsung to port, BG SPIRIT to starboard and Me to You dead ahead; an estimated 500 dolphins (many young amongst them) flanked us for an after-dinner spectacle in the form of an aquatic, arcing pair of wings on either beam. Their playfulness really was breathtaking, as dolphin after dolphin launched itself into the air, spinning and tipping over backwards, slapping the crystal surface with their tails, leaping in twos, threes, fours and fives and weaving a web of streamlined bubbles from bow to stern. This was certainly our best show to date. It was mesmerisingly beautiful and I will opt to take it as a sign to stay positive, keep jumping and doing all the tricks - we will get there in the end!

37 57 S 161 12E

We take it all back - there is nothing dull about routine and stability. Bring back the cruising weather! For those who do not like change, today has not been a good day. The wind is like a pogo stick in a lift. For Tasman Sea in February read brilliant sunshine, refreshing breeze and calm seas; no, actually, cancel that - humid, oppressive weather with electrical storms and dampness everywhere. On the other hand, you could opt for gale-force winds and a return to big-wave country, the stars all packed away out of sight behind the gloom. In the last few hours we have had it all; spinnakers, genoa, and a wardrobe of yankees and reefs.

Since sailing through a low-pressure system earlier in the day, BP Explorer has been covered in the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune - again! This morning as we ploughed into a wind hole, we watched SAIC La Jolla and Barclays Adventurer continue trucking fast at only spitting distance whilst our speed dropped off the scale. We lost our hard-won gains of the previous night in the blink of an eye as it began to rain, and rain, and rain some more.

Lying third as we enjoyed a spectacular and moody sunrise with lightning to the north-east and a blood-red sky behind, we were in ninth by the time that 'Pasta Vegetariana' was making its way into the dog bowls this evening. The scheds go out of date as quickly as a copy of Hello magazine, and we are now awaiting a new set as I type this wedged into the media seat whilst the boat launches off huge waves and those on deck get a soaking.

And here they come; the latest is that we now lie in eighth position. The boats to the north - the main pack of which are 20 miles away along the north-south spread - fared better than those of us caught out in softer winds to the south. So, if we are feeling bad, no doubt VAIO and BG SPIRIT feel even worse! Whilst the leaders, Team Stelmar, are around seven miles in front of us, we need only make up two-and-a-half miles to recover five of those lost places. In summary - the racing is very, very close. As we approach Sydney, now just 550 miles distant (ETA Valentine's Day), it is going to take a plan more cunning than a professor of cunning at Cunning University to outwit our adversaries - and, no doubt, not a little bit of luck. Here's hoping!

38 33 S 165 56 E

Five red lights to our starboard and three green to our port kept us company throughout the night. The fleet are very close and only several miles are separating the first eight places.

Trimming is the name of the game and there is a constant rotation of crew poised on the bow to check both sides of the sails for any slight alteration. This part of the ocean, in contrast to the last leg, appears to be teaming with life though some we aren't readily able to identify.

As we went on watch at 10pm the sea started to sparkle with phosphorescence then gradually become more alive. As torches scanned the surface a soup of strange white creatures floated past. They were about 6-8 inches in length and looked like small cucumbers. Several suggestions were put forward as to what they were, partially inflated condoms or a lost container of glow-in-the-dark vibrators were probably incorrect.

Later that night the dolphins once more gave us a display of their swimming skills made all the more impressive as we could see them surfacing and diving leaving a green trail behind them - that ol' phosphorescence again, don't ya just love it?

As the sun rose the fleet positions showed we had gained on those ahead of us and got away from those behind though out position remained the same. At lunchtime the wind increased and we dropped the Genoa that has been up for the last 48 hours and replaced it with the no1 Yankee. While we were finishing the sail change we were reminded, if we needed to be, of the importance of clipping on as a huge shark sidled up beside the yacht as if expecting a stray titbit to come his way.

The rest of the afternoon has been spent trying to get every bit of speed out of BP Explorer while soaking up some rays in the glorious sunshine. Below deck Rob and Major have been dismantling the water maker trying to find the source of a leak in the high-pressure system. Their effort has been rewarded and it now looks to be fixed. Laura is anxiously
checking our ETA in Sydney as her own race starts the moment we dock. She needs to get a dress for her wedding day on the 18th and has no time to lose; an enterprising retailer may do well to meet us as we come in with tape measure and swatches in hand!

38o55S 168o23E

When we set sail from Portsmouth back in October I received a card in which one person had written 'enjoy your cruise!' The message had obviously got confused somewhere along the line.

Thus far, however, Leg Three seems to be delivering the best of cruising life, with several small but crucial differences. For once we do not envy the cosy fireplaces of home, toasted crumpets dripping with Marmite and windows closed against the stormy weather. Here on BP Explorer we have everything we could wish for; the sun has beaten down all day, its heat tempered by a fair and constant breeze, sundrops bouncing off a gradually-building swell and promising a fantastic sunset which I will be off to enjoy as soon as I have fired this off into the ether.

Literally hundreds of dolphins escorted Cop's watch this morning as they chased hot on the heels of BG SPIRIT and those on deck were also lucky enough to spot seals and a shark - which we have tentatively identified as a Porbeagle.

We may not have gin and tonics and we are once again be on water restrictions due to a failure of a brass nut splitting in the high-pressure side of the water-maker, but we have enjoyed an escape from porridge and the precious addition of apples, bananas and caramel slices to our diet. Manna from Heaven! Luckily apples seem to be very tradeable and some of us now have a Curver box full of fruit. (A BIG, BIG thank you to Jane for remaining a dedicated member of the team and feeding us so well! We miss you. Xxx)

Meanwhile, our new BP Explorer crew members, Jo Henderson and Pieter Tol, are settling in well and providing us with a wealth of new things to talk about. Jo's question for the day whilst serving the dinner, for example, stimulated much highbrow and empassioned debate: 'You are in a room with a Black Mamba and you have been bitten. You have a gun with one bullet - what do you do.' After all, we were getting bored of the old 'Is a Jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit?' debate! Answers on a postcard please.

The racing, meanwhile, is the antithesis of relaxation. Positioning is the key concern as we begin to think about the approach to Sydney, negotiation of the currents we will encounter there and trying to outwit the rest of the fleet. There are two Aussie-skippered boats - BG SPIRIT and Samsung, the latter sporting a large inflatable kangaroo atop their radar just to enforce the point - so we know that our competition could not be more determined.

Almost the entire fleet is spread out along a relatively long line to north and south, with only three other yachts further south than us - Barclays Adventurer, SAIC La Jolla and Pindar. The relative distances to the finish, however, are negligible and the positions change by the hour. Living by the scheds has never been worse for one's health! The only option for mere mortals like myself is to trust in the tactics of David, Andrew and Stephen and trim and helm our hearts out. It may take concentration but it is no great hardship as the all-too-imminent prospect of a return to the furious fifties reminds us.

We are greatful for small mercies and we feel very, very lucky to be enjoying the view.

40 04 South 171 36 East

After an exciting but disappointing start for BP Explorer we are now back in the groove and, having nearly lost our rear end in a close encounter with Barclays Adventurer, we are proudly displaying it to the majority of the fleet once more.

It has not been easy though. After fighting our way through from eleventh place at the start to third behind Spirit of Sark we sailed into a pocket of light winds and at 9am this morning the log once again read boat speed - 0.0.

We watched helplessly as the yachts to our left and right surged ahead one by one each reclaiming a place until we were once again nearer to the back than the front. As the winds started to build once more at one point we were forced to point up into the wind to avoid what we thought was a log in the water. As we got closer however, we discovered that it was a seal sun-bathing. The sprightly fellow (he could have been a she of course but we weren't going to stop to find out) continued to follow us playing and frolicking and providing a welcome distraction for the crew on the rail.

Spirit of Sark remained within shouting distance just ahead of us for most of the day but we gradually reduced the gap until we passed them and Cape Farewell at about three o'clock this afternoon. We've been flying the Genoa for the last 24 hours and it has clearly been a day where the helms and trimmers have excelled. A brief moment where foulies were donned to hank on the no 1 Yankee provided some excitement for the foredeck team but the winds never came and it was removed and flaked a little later.

After the wonderful food of New Zealand our freeze dried fare was something of a change but it has been supplemented with some luxuries that this short leg can afford us such as fresh fruit, part-baked bread and wonder of wonders, fresh apple pie and custard.

As the day draws to a close the latest position report shows us in third place and with our sights set on BG Spirit just under three miles ahead and VAIO just under four miles ahead. Confidence is high and we are continuing the fight to first place. BP Explorer looks good on all sides but the bit we like flashing to the rest of the fleet most is our behind.

40' 50S 174' 21E

The land of the long white cloud has all but slipped over the glittering horizon in our wake, the purple-blue hilltops layering away into a quickening sunset along the inky-green tree-line where South Island's magical coastline meets the cobalt sea.

The day has been perfect for a race start, the breeze obliging and the conditions perfect for the flotilla of
spectators who wished everyone on their way. It was certainly a far cry from the storm whose jaws we had to navigate to make it in just a month ago.

New Zealand seemed reluctant to yield up her beauties and now we know why - there is nowhere like it on earth; a perfect escape and a wonderful adventure playground after the rigours of leg 2. We all hope to return too.

Last night, we were treated to an unforgettable display of pyrotechnics choreographed for Chinese New Year which seem to have infected the crews with some impressive passion and enthusiasm for the start of the leg. Just a few minutes separated us as we jostled over the line, bang in front of the crowds thronging Wellington's shore and with the slicing hum of helicopters overhead. For BP Explorer - winners of Leg 3 in the last Global Challenge - we were keen to do well right from the line!

It was not to be. Approaching the line slightly early, we were forced to slow the boat down dramatically to avoid being over and incurring a time penalty. Annoyingly the boat was almost stopped in the water as a result and our competitors flew past us. The drama continued with our approach to the windward mark on starboard tack, which saw us making up a good few places before we were paid a visit by Barclays Adventurer. Clearly keen to take a good look into our cockpit, they came hooning at us on port tack, and we narrowly escaped collision with them by turning BP Explorer hard to port to swing our back end out of line with Barclays Adventurer's fast-approaching bow.

Images of the collision which dominated the leg 3 start in the Global 2000-2001 certainly came to mind! It was too narrow a miss and we protested Barclays Adventurer immediately. Shaken but not stirred, we then made a somewhat ragged crossing of the Cook Strait and finally the cobwebs began to disperse.

As night approaches we have begun to work our way back up to a more respectable position and as we head for bed with a belly full of that old favourite, Thai Chicken Curry, we currently lie in the middle of the pack. We are coming back!