19 39N 40 26W

The other day Christian came up to me and said how would I like to change watches? As bowmen we share the same role on each watch and he suggested that he would like to see how Olly's watch did things - he has been on Cop's watch since the start in October. It would also give us both a chance to work with the rest of the crew which, although we'd worked together plenty of times in training and on start and finishes, had not spent day-to-day watches with before.

I was a little uneasy at first. Although we are all one team we are divided into two smaller mini teams for each watch and moving from the group I'd been with from the start would be strange. It did make me analyse just how much I thought I knew Cop, Major, Andrew, John Stewart, Giles and Goldie - though Giles and Goldie have been on Olly's watch before
now. Anyway, we agreed and last night I went to bed early from Olly's watch and was woken half way through Cop's watch. It's not very surprising that everything works pretty much the same. Both watches talk through how they perform procedures and pass tips and suggestions on to each other. At our daily crew de-brief, ways of doing things are agreed and issues such as safety, crew happiness and performance are discussed as one crew. The fundamental difference is the day-to-day personalities. Over time we get to know who, on our watch, is grumpy when first woken, who naturally migrates to certain jobs such as main trimming, running the spinnaker lines etc. or just what food they prefer at meal times for example. These are all things that I didn't, and still don't, know about my new watch. Nearly eight months into the race having circumnavigated the world under sail with this
crew I only intimately knew 'my watch'. So over the next ten to fourteen days or so, until the end of this leg, I'm going to get to know how they tick and they are going to get to know me a little better too - certainly something I hadn't thought about at the start of the leg. Already our swap has become something of a talking point and both watch leaders have reported a renewed vigour from us both, perhaps as a result of us trying to impress our new 'mini' team-mates.

The swap certainly hasn't affected our performance. As of this afternoon's position reports we have moved from third to be in first place again. Our constant attention to trimming and helming is paying off and we have crept up on and overtaken SAIC La Jolla and BG SPIRIT who are now four miles and seven miles behind us respectfully.

David reports that he has never sailed so fast and consistently in a straight line before and we have covered an amazing 4700 miles in three weeks with just under 2000 still to go. It's fingers crossed for continued good winds and an early entry into Boston. We currently have our 1.5 race kite up which has not been out for nearly a week so it's looking good.