Day 18 : The Doldrums

Doldrums, what Doldrums? So far we've been surfing along at 10 to 12 knots and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. The heat is still intense and it does sap the energy levels somewhat but we are sailing and that makes all the difference. The good news is that we are making ground on the leaders and every time we look at the daily position reports we find we've either gained or held our own on the rest of the fleet. The heat and the fact that we are two weeks into the leg could lead to focus levels dropping but team talks every day from David keep us on track. We are treating every hour like it's the last hour on the last day on the final leg of the race and the task is simple - get ahead of the yacht in front then increase the gap. A special mention should go to Major Mahli today. Major has created by far the best meals we've had on this leg with curries being his speciality. Yesterday he also baked a cake for Stephen Allberry whose birthday we celebrated at midday, this time two months after the event. ALL HANDS ON DECK. as I write this log the shout goes out above me. The flanker has to come down and it's everyone up on deck putting their life jackets over their heads as they go.

Back at the screen now, flanker safely down, the foreguy* had given way and we had a flag instead of a sail. It had sheared midway along its length, no chafe and no reason for the failure, definitely one to muse over in a bar in Buenos Aires. Only moments before David had been chatting to Olly on the helm about dropping it "This Flanker is going to have to come down soon", five seconds later and it was on its way. David says he's been trying the same thought control to get a cup of tea, but it's not working. I'm taking that as a hint; I'm off to put the kettle on.

[* The foreguy is an 18mm diameter rope used to control the fore and aft movement of the spinnaker pole. It goes from the end of the spinnaker pole to a block (pulley) and back to the cockpit. It's supposed to have a breaking strain in excess of 4 tonnes, so the technical team might be musing in BA on that one too!]