47 25 S 142 42 E

We are now well and truly upon the battleground once again! The heater is, as we speak, on its test run (memories of leg two are still fresh!), the water is already icy and for the last 24 hours we have been plunging through beautiful, dreadful seas with waves up to 30 feet high, Force 8-9 winds and tonne after splintering tonne of water breaking over the boat. Exhausted and somewhat drained (as we are all finding it hard to eat), we were greeted this morning with an incredible sunrise, our pitching amphitheatre of steel-grey sea circumscribed by towering snow-on-the-way clouds and a hint of melba-coloured morning to the east. As the sun rose, we saw a golden staggered ladder of scudding cloud wafers framed in gilt with the promise of clearer skies and respite from the storm; sure enough, by lunchtime there was more than enough blue to patch one hundred sailors' trousers.

As Cop commented, however, the winds of the afternoon continued to make a mockery of us, albeit being down to an average 25 knots, and for two hours we never had the right sail plan up for more than ten minutes, which made for exhausting work for foredeck and snakepit teams, who also contended with sporadic and vicious storms of hail. Cheeks and noses in need of TLC all round!

Having just knocked off the first 1,000 miles of this 6,000-plus-mile leg, we are approaching the end of our first week which for the BP Explorer crew must have seemed like a baptism of fire. We have managed to achieve our first aim of rounding the Tasmania waypoint in the top three and we still lie in third, with the distance to Barclays Adventurer and Imagine it. Done having slowly diminished overnight and throughout the day. As ever Spirit of Sark are hot on our heels though and we fight to keep them off. A few bumps and bruises aside, we are all well and in good spirits, though not a little daunted by the tough month ahead, and, on a more temporary note, drenched in the smell of Lee & Perrins below decks following a disastrous galley spill. In the meantime, our thoughts go out to Team Save the Children - we wish their injured crew member a speedy recovery and fair winds to the rest of the team to speed them back on their way.

Naomi Cudmore