Leg 4: 26th July

Position at 2100 local time, 26th July 2009, 44.54N, 46.45W

To begin the new day we rounded the waypoint at 0058hrs, which has been a huge moral boost for the whole crew. We had encountered adverse weather on the long journey to our waypoint which had begun to drag as we had logged many more miles than the distance between the point and Halifax.

After the waypoint this morning we have covered another 150 nautical miles which has kept us in 1st in class in front of our main competitor Peter Von Danzig in recalculated time Recalculated time is used in racing because all boats, even in the same class, perform differently. Therefore a handicap is calculated to reduce the differences between the boats and to amplify the skill of the sailors. Peter Von Danzig is a faster boat, so even when slightly behind them on the water we can still be leading the class. We have also had visits from dolphins and whales as well as reaching our fastest speed of the race so far at 12.7.knots, whilst flying our heavy weather spinnaker and riding down the face of a wave.

Below decks Red Watch has been improvising and excelling on both renewing the images of the entertainment and moral on board and creating interesting meals for the deck crews. When life becomes repetitive onboard simple changes in daily activities such as meal variety becomes increasingly important. Meals have consisted of cereal, grapefruit and bubble and squeak for breakfast, soup powder was instead used to create a pasta sauce and spam was fried, enjoyed with freshly baked bread to make lunch as interesting as possible! Then an onion tart was created to enjoy during our daily beer at happy hour, and Matt's amazing curry was served before Josh Warren's spectacular lemon curd Victoria style cake. Red watch is now abed for a few hours before mother watch ends and their sailing duties recommence at 0000hrs.

Bryn Kewley