Leg 2 Day 15 : 58 14S 93 02W

Soon the only thing missing will be the sound of distant gunfire; life down here at 58 South gets more and more like the Home Front every day. We have a shortage of pretty much everything except powdered egg - you name it: gas, water, heat, dry socks. all are being carefully preserved and rationed. And as for oranges and other such treats - these are as rare as hens' teeth and there seem to be no signs of the supplies getting through. No tangerines in the bottom of our stockings this year! The galley resembles a soup kitchen - full of huge steaming pans of various types of runny googah, all of which taste pretty much the same and look even more similar; whilst by night cold crew descend the companionway steps for a quick defrost in hushed tones and a communal warming of hands on the kettle under the red night lights. The back bedroom, meanwhile, feels like an Anderson shelter - packed with heavily-wrapped-up bods all trying to keep warm in the icy chill. Yesterday David lent a suitably Churchillian tone to our daily midday roundup - which for once we were able to enjoy above decks during this spell of calm weather. 'This is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning,' he enthused. And the beginning will be over when we reach Waypoint Alpha - now less than 1,000 nautical miles distant. As the fleet begins to converge on this point (at 52 South, and approximately four days away), less than 60 miles separate the first 11 boats. As I write this, we may be in our worst position yet - according to the 0145 position reports this morning we were lying in fifth - but at the same time we are just one-and-a-half miles from third position and six miles from second. In many ways this is more cheering than labouring in third with more than 50 miles to the leaders. Yesterday we were dealt something of a 'Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free' card, with the flukey winds which have shaken up the scheds favouring us rather than Spirit of Sark and BG SPIRIT - on both of whom we made rapid gains. But of course we were not the only ones, and those behind us crowded forwards and began hunting us down too. Now it is all to play for - things are changing so fast that by the time this reaches you the positions may have altered yet again, hopefully for the better! Naomi Cudmore