43o14N 47o12W

What can we do better? How can we make BP Explorer go a little bit faster than the rest of the fleet? These are the questions we ask each other all the time. How the hell did they get there when we are busting a gut doing everything we can? What more can we possibly do? We think to ourselves for fear of bringing negative vibes by saying our thoughts out loud. The fleet are getting faster, they are making less mistakes and any advantage we had at the start of the race for all the practising, all the team building and all of David's knowledge is now making less of a difference. Add to that our recent knack of finding our own private wind hole while all around us sail away and it's all a bit, dare I say it, frustrating.

At eight this morning we rounded Waypoint Charlie though things didn't quite go to plan. The wind changed direction allowing 'those that shall not be named' - you know the ones that wanted us to feel as bad in Boston as they did coming into Cape Town - to creep ahead. They are now 1.5 miles in front. We are confident and so hope to pass them soon.

Ahead of them are Spirit of Sark and BG SPIRIT and these are our real targets. We have been making small gains on them all day and at the last position reports they are just under two miles and just under four miles in front respectively.

This afternoon our good friends on Pindar were close enough for us to see them working on deck and we took the opportunity to take some pictures of Laura with Graham's boat in the background. However, some very acrobatic dolphins stole the show when they darted up between us jumping and flipping until they disappeared after a short play in our bow wave.

We had something of a surprise today when we found a card from Matt Cannon, one of the BP Explorer crew on the last leg. The message inside thanked the rest of the crew for making his experience enjoyable and gave us words of encouragement for the rest of the race. A PS at the end said that he had hidden some 'excess weight' under his bunk. On further investigation we found a stash of chocolate, cookies and sweets. Matt you are a star, the beers are on us when we next meet. Dennis Boyd, one of the BP Explorer crew members on this leg, added to making this a red letter day by bringing out a bottle of 16 year old Kentucky Bourbon as we came off watch at 6pm - we went to our bunks happy!

As the sun went down we can see all but three of the fleet, their navigation lights twinkling all around us This experience is much bigger than just a race and there will be so many great memories when we finish in July but for now wouldn't the memories be that much better if we were on the podium even with all the anxiety and stress that brings? We think so and so we are going to battle to the end.