Leg 2 Day 32 : 46 48 S 169 01 W

Alas, no 'peaches and cream' sunsets today. A curtain fell on the myriad of colour that painted the heavens and, as the winds rose and the clouds joined to hide the blue and blanket sparkle-topped waves we were, once more, shrouded in ever so grey. BP Explorer heeled as her sails filled, lifted and surged through the waves. Gripping tightly at her reigns her occupants braced themselves for the inevitable 'bumpy ride' and contemplated the error of not taking their showers yesterday. Elsewhere, BG Spirit are cashing in some of their northerly advantage chips and have sailed faster than us today to take second position pushing us back to third. We expect them to make more of their good tactical decision and gain further miles over the next couple of days. Samsung have changed course to intercept with Imagine It. Done. and pass across urgent medical supplies. We can't tell at the moment the affect it will have on our final position after any compensation is taken into consideration, however the important thing is that they are there to assist as will BP Explorer if required and as Imagine It Done speed towards the Chatham Islands, some 360 miles from our current position, BP Explorer will be the next in line should further assistance be required. Our immediate target is Spirit of Sark and we are doing everything we can to eat away at their lead over us. We expect to have northerly winds for the next 36 hours and only time will tell what we will have to do to improve our position when the leaders converge to pass the Chatham Islands themselves. In approximately 24 hours we will pass the International Date Line and as Andrew Smith put it "this time tomorrow it will be the day after tomorrow." New Year's Eve is safe for now though I thought it would have been nice when asked what we did for new year 2004-5 the answer would be 'we missed it because it wasn't there' - stories of heroics on the foredeck and fighting Southern Ocean waves would invariably follow. As stories of injuries and medical problems make their way into the logs we would just like to reassure our friends and families that we are all safe and well. At no point will we ever sacrifice safety or the well being of the crew for race position or the yacht and we are also looking after ourselves nutritionally and mentally. Safe and happy are first in the list for very good reason - faster is the bonus. John Bass