Leg 2 Day 31 : 47o36S 164o45W

As a peaches-and-cream sunset gave way to a canopy of stars this evening, it seemed to us that we had finally made inroads into a more hospitable atmosphere, leaving behind us the dark desert that is the Southern Ocean. The fearless winds that blow day and night, the perpetual bulleting rain, and a never-ending cloak of darkness have been lifted to reveal again a brilliant sky, lit up tonight over the helmsman's right shoulder by the brightest star in the entire sky, the southern hemisphere's Sirius, 8.6 light years away. The beautiful night seems so at odds with the scenes of devastation in Indonesia which, even out here, we have heard about but can only imagine; and which certainly make the small war we wage seem in many ways insignificant. It is very easy to forget things on a global scale, encapsulated as we are in our own minutely-focussed bubble, and perhaps it is worth keeping this in the back of our minds as we approach the finish and the last battle at the front of the fleet intensifies. Today we saw 'distance to waypoint' flick to below 1,000 miles on our screens and let out a quiet breath of relief; it has been a long, hard slog. Last night saw BG SPIRIT and Samsung heading away from the pack to the north on a flyer to position themselves for the forecast northerly winds; due to a medical incident on Imagine It. Done. (to whom we send our best wishes for a speedy recovery) we experienced a communications embargo for some time and did not, as a result, receive a position report on the rest of the fleet. With an inkling of BG SPIRIT and Samsung's tactics, but with no confirmation to aid our own decision-making, we played with the hand we were dealt and sailed as fast as we could to cover Spirit of Sark - whose masthead light could be seen just a couple of miles away on the starboard bow. As day dawned and we were enlightened by the scheds, it became clear that our adversaries had made a bold move which, for BG SPIRIT at least, has paid off - around 70 miles north of us, they have now made up considerable ground, and Samsung, around 35 miles north, are also gaining, although somewhat more slowly. As all this was going on, Spirit of Sark remained in sight for the early part of the morning, until the last remnants of a dying breeze lifted their tail and scooped them away from us over the glittering horizon. Agonisingly we watched as they disappeared from view and left us wallowing in light airs. The last position reports tell us that they are now 13.3 miles away - the slings and arrows indeed! Naomi Cudmore