We are slightly uneasy here on BP Explorer today - everything is going ok. We had some slight damage to our staysail but it's been repaired and it is now back up and flying well after several days with the storm staysail. We are still in front and pulling away from the rest of the fleet mile by mile, every position report over the last few days has been a pleasure to read.
The crew haven't gone mad with the cold and started to burn the contents of their Curver boxes to make heat, mainly due to the fact that it is a bit warmer (read less freezing cold) outside and the heater has come back to life and seems to be working. Even the weather ahead is looking good for us, better than we expected in fact - everything is going ok. So, why so uneasy?
Well because for the first time in ages we are not banging our heads against a wall in frustration over wind holes, routing mistakes, sharps on the rigging ripping our sails and all the other factors that have seen us drop back forcing us to climb to the front again only for something else to happen so we drop back and have do it all again. In the previous legs (indeed previous races) few boats have come in first having lead the way for most of the leg and while we are confident that we'll overcome and sail through any problems we're used to suffering a bit more than we have over the last 24 hours. So, we're slightly uneasy. We're wondering what's going to happen to mess it all up for us.
Christian Talpo is convinced that it his enthusiastic opera singing on deck that is bringing us the luck, the off watch trying to sleep are not so sure. We are nearly halfway through this leg and we reckon by the end of this week we'll have broken the back of it. A bit more rough stuff to come but if we can stay in the lead it'll make the extra work, the cold and whatever the Gods decide to throw at us a little easier to bare. The more miles we can put between us and the likes of BG SPIRIT and Spirit of Sark the happier we'll be. We've just got the latest positions in and it's good reading again. Who needs sleep? Carry on singing.
John Bass
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