Day 33 :near a bar! (34 47 S 57 15 W)

'Once we are in the river, that's when the dye is nearly cast.' These were the words of David Melville just a few days ago and here we are, still in fourth and holding off the enemy!

Throughout the night we have been careering up the inappropriately named River Plate - which means River of Silver, although it is anything but. By night it was admittedly a sparkling sight - to port, a multitude of vessels in the shipping channel all lit up with their navigation lights; to starboard, the golden glow and streetlights of Montevideo; above, a canopy of stars; and all around us, the best show of phosphoresence of the journey - so bright that the rushing caps and foam of the brisk waves piled along luminously for as far as the eye could see. When a particularly frisky whitecap landed on the deck, that too was lit up with millions of spots of florescent light.

As dawn breaks, however, we regard our final bowl of porridge with some relief and the water with some surprise. We knew it would be muddy - but it really is very very brown - full of the earth washed down from the hills and mountains. In the Plate we have a series of waypoints to round, after each of which we must send in a brief report to Race HQ.

Information included in this is a list of yachts which we can see behind and in front. Thus far, this section has remained blank - a bittersweet fact, for whilst we have held off our old adversaries Sark and BG, we have not, thus far, managed to catch Samsung. Tantalisingly close at dusk yesterday - just a few miles distant - they managed to pull away from us dramatically during the high winds of the early hours. If we are honest with ourselves, only a fairly major mistake on their part is likely to see us pass them at this stage, but as they say, 'it isn't over until it's over!'

We have saved our final Mars bars until today for that extra bit of fuel in these last hard-fought hours of racing and perhaps it will make all the difference! I know for sure that as long as we hold our place there is going to be a huge roar of approval when we cross that line to the relieved shouts of our supporters bounding along in the ribs - Mum I'm on my way!!!!

Thanks to readers for all the kind comments about our logs throughout Leg 1! I am reliably informed that there will be much to see on our team website - www.bpoceanracingteam.com -during the stopover, and we will try to post logs throughout our stay in Buenos Aires. More soon when we head for Cape Horn - but for now it's off to the bar! Watch leader David Pugh ('Cop') may have discovered that he is not as addicted to Stella Artois as he previously thought, but there is still a lot of catching up to do!