Having crossed the Equator at midnight, few were in the mood to be woken for the customary celebrations and the judgement by Neptune. However, the next day, at 12:00 pm local time Neptune appeared from below decks, we assume through one of the hull fittings, much like an aquatic Santa Claus.
Strangely enough, just as Santa always looked like your dad with a white beard, Neptune was the spitting image of David. Dressed not in a flowing gown with sparkling seaweed and coral but in black silk boxers, a snakeskin posing pouch and a sheer, two-tone green and blue cape. He was not so much the legendary king of the sea but looked more like Albert Steptoe had been covered in Super Glue and rolled around in Oxfam.
Judged we were though, and crimes ranged from being too pale to allowing the biggest cross-track error ever recorded. The punishments were swift and unpleasant. An evil kitchen gloop had been created that satisfied the three main criteria, it smelt bad, looked bad and stuck to the skin like **** to a blanket. The amount of gloop slapped across the back of each offender varied wildly with some getting away with one and others (me included) getting the maximum sentence of five.
Frivolity over, we got back to the serious sailing. Each watch reported average speeds over 10 knots and we passed the Archipelago de Fernando de Noronha - an island some 200 miles from the coast of Brazil - at about midnight. Avoiding local traffic was the aim for the rest of the night. The fleet positions showed we'd gained on Barclays, VAIO and Samsung and edged away a little from BG SPIRIT and those behind. Whilst we are racing on the water every yacht in the fleet is our enemy, however, our thoughts do go out to Team Save the Children who appear to have had more than their fair share of bad luck. The leg is not over yet and anything can happen to any one of us, but we hope every one makes it to Buenos Aires safe with as few injuries as possible.
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