37' 32N 58' 20W

Well even the most optimistic of BP Explorer's supporters must be able to see that we are in a difficult position. Four days to go and four yachts are locked into a scrappy fight for 5th place - 5th! And the yachts that are in
this battle were 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the last leg to Cape Town. Not what we hoped for, not at all. 3rd and 4th place are achievable, but overnight, it is the yachts behind which occupy my thoughts. As for second, there is hope, but we will need a lot of wind holes to slow them up and the
next time I see the crew of BG SPIRIT will be in a bar in Boston!

When I started this campaign, the first person I got in contact with was a sports psychologist - Simon Timson. We talked about mental toughness for both the skipper and the crew. When we talk about ocean yacht racing being tough, it's not just physical, at least half (and I think more) is mental
robustness. This leg had not been difficult physically, in fact with the warm weather and plentiful food onboard a number of crew are getting rounder. It has been hard mentally. Despite all our best efforts - and an excellent 4 week run up the Atlantic which saw us in the top two for all our objective points of Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn - here we are.

The crew handle it with the slogan ''control the controllables and forget the rest''. If they work hard all watch and sail the boat well that is a definition of success. The crew also now have an innate confidence in the boat's abilities. Perhaps the person whose mental robustness takes the biggest hammering is my own.

Skippers have a tendency to personalise yacht racing. Skippers that are ahead can be seen as ''better''. Not better crews or, more to the point, lucky crews - but better skippers. This way lies madness! and was discussed with Simon Timson at length in the cold winter months that preceded this race. Once you start talking about better or worse skippers, then your ego is tied into the performance of the yacht. Now as we all know, the ego is a very vulnerable entity. If you tie your own ego into the performance of the yacht then your own mental health is going to take a real battering. The end result can be ''my yacht is in a bad place therefore I am a bad person'' kind of a mindset.

You can see it in some of the stopovers, a bad result can start to crush a skipper and they become slightly 'down' for their time in port. It's tough on them, and tough on the crew. One thing I try to think about is that my wife Kate and our little baby boy Jasper will be waiting for me on the
pontoon in Boston. What sort of person do they want to be greeted by? Someone defeated by events out of their control, or a positive person still confident in their abilities? Well the answer's obvious.

This has been a difficult leg and it's not over yet. Places are still up for grabs in front, and dangerous yachts lurk just a few miles astern. But whatever the result, this team is going to walk off the yacht (and straight into the first bar) with heads high.