Leg 4: 31st July

Position at 2000 local time, 31st July 2009, 50.28N, 29.08W

Hello blog followers!!! May I say a massive THANKYOU for all your comments you have left over the last few days, keep them coming!!! It was a great boost for morale this morning at breakfast when skipper read them all out. It was really nice to hear from people back home and know that there are actually people out there reading, appreciating and enjoying our blog. The riddles are all being used in an inter watch competition, with the winning watch being the one who have solved the most. Our answers are at the end of this blog.

The boat rubix cube has yet to be solved despite the best efforts of Dom, Lee and Paul.

Today was white watches fourth time on motherwatch, and with it came the worst golden kip of the trip for the watch. Motherwatch have now been banished to the forepeak, or "the swamp" as it is more commonly referred to by the crew, for their golden kip. As its name suggests "the swamp is very wet, due to a multitude of factors; sweat, condensation and bow waves that are set on proving that the boat is not watertight by finding their way in through every crack and crevasse. This, combined with the heel of the boat and the stench from the heads, made for a night of little and uncomfortable sleep.

Breakfast was the usual combination of smash (powdered mash), omelette with frankfurters and tinned tomatoes. Most of the crew are going off the smash and the quantities of smash returning to the galley each day are on the up. Due to the rapidly decreasing amount of gas on board, bread and afternoon snack baking are now taking place together to fully utilize the oven. However, due to butter running out afternoon snacks are becoming more difficult to make, yet still turn out equally delicious, with oat cakes and pancakes being made today.

Motherwatch also made a fantastic discovery this morning three unused boxes of Leg 3 food were found in the main saloon bilges. This meant a much needed change from the lunch menu as egg fried noodles with tuna and mayonnaise was enjoyed. Jonny Ho's bread was accompanied by the newly found Nutella. Everyone enjoyed Jonny's egg fried noodles, number 45 on the menu; unfortunately it was eat in option at 20 degree tilt only.

Mark, our resident scouse fisherman, who so far has only been able to catch the boat when he got his line caught round the keel, still has not been able to provide dinner for the crew. However, two sympathetic fish took pity on him and his lame efforts and committed suicide by planting themselves on deck, these fish will be used as bait for something much larger.

On deck blue watch, under the charismatic leadership of Simon Turvey and Jonny Wareing took over an hour to instigate a head sail change, they blamed the mess on deck the previous watch had left behind. Despite that we are currently cruising along at 8.5 knots under Genoa, Staysail, Main and Mizzen, having had the spinnaker up earlier in the afternoon.

Photo by Matt O' Connell.

We are 1st in class today and have taken another 40 miles out of Peter Von Danzig's lead on the water. We are now just 100 miles behind them having been 220 miles behind 3 days ago.

The weather is due to turn heavy again tonight and this should give us a shot at closing the gap further, as they pull away in light conditions. We now have less than 1000 miles to go to Belfast and if we keep up our pace of the past week then we should cross the finish line before this time next week.

We are now looking forward to happy hour and Pizza for dinner.

Generally today has been without drama and last night was the first night without a sail change.

Steve Jackson - White Watch

Skippers notes - Results of riddles

Red Watch won the competition for the most riddles solved, answers are as follows:-

Riddle set by Ali, Coffin

Riddles set by Hazel and Gary, Way in the manger and We three kings

5 Houses problem, The Norwegian drinks water, The Greek keeps a Zebra

Riddles set by Iris and Terry, Sponge, Library, Take glass 2, pour into
glass 5 and put back into original place.

Riddle set by Pat, Stan and Susan, No answer yet, crew still working on
riddle.

Riddle set by anonymous about a nutcracker, Mouse.

I must reiterate Steve's comments about the response to our blogs, it is fantastic to know that people are following our progress and blogs and making the effort to respond.

I have to say that this is the most highly motivated and cheerful crew I have ever sailed with. Whatever is asked of them is carried out with enthusiasm and humour.

We are sailing the boat as hard as we can and looking forward to the finish line.

Best wishes
Chris (skipper) and crew of Rona II.