Leg 4: 30th July

Position at 2000 local time, 30th July 2009, 48.52N, 33.23W

Day 11 began with chaos once again, with the ocean waves reaching heights of 15 feet and wind speeds of force 8 at times, allowing the boys on watch to boast having sailed in an Atlantic Gale. Red Watch, as soon as getting on deck for their 12-4 watch were immediately called upon to perform several tasks, all of which where completed within their first hour. This involved first of all, having to get the Genoa 1 sail untied from the guard rail and into the sail locker, but not before having to cut through one of the more formidable sail ties. As they were stowing the Genoa, to Kai's dismay, one of the waves managed to turn the relatively safe sail locker into a 7 foot swimming pool whilst Kai was the one standing in it to safely secure the sail. Next the watch crew needed to pull down the Yankee 1 sail and hank the Yankee 2, which was successfully completed with in the torrential weather that surrounded the boat. To their relief this was the mostly all they had to for the rest of the day, spending the rest enjoying the sun and the waves that where crashing against boat and reaching into the cockpit. After one particular wave which drenched them all simultaneously, all their SOS alarms activated at once, giving Rona a fantastic Technicolor light show for all to see (all who could see anyway).

At the daily position report it was found that we had taken another 40 miles out of Peter Von Danzig's lead and we were still in first place in our class.

When Red watch were getting some well deserved sleep, White watch had a slightly more pleasant and less tiring duty. During their time on board they managed to make contact with a oil tanker (to negotiate routes for safe passage), spotted around 30 dolphins dancing between the waves surrounding Rona, and at one point, Mark found the time to try out his second home made kite (a Mark II of sorts) which met the same fate as its predecessor. The problem was, in Marks words, it kept crashing in to the floor, which was unfortunately the sea moving at 8 knots. The only hard ship they had to endure compared to Red watches was a chilling cold despite the bright sunny weather.

Down below deck, Blue watch were once again on mother watch duties. Not much had changed in terms of required tasks. All day meals included a hefty dealing of mash, heads needed to be cleaned and dishes to be washed. However due to the previously mentioned flooding of the sail locker, the excess weight had to be pumped out from beneath the floor boards once again, only this time being done so 6 times. The watch's day was also met with more varying excitement of duties when Toyin discovered a new life form on Rona, a well hidden fungus in the corner on the cutlery shelf. This meant a complete rewashing of all the cutlery and cooking implements (although judging from the size of the fungus, it already had enough time to potentially inflict everyone with some kind of food poisoning but not the tough Rona crew).

As the day came to a close, happy hour at 6pm presented the usual beer and crisps/peanuts, and also secret Santa surprises. Gifts ranged from giant lollipops and inflatable hammers to collars and thongs. Hopefully the crew will resist the urge to wear the latter until after we reach Belfast.

All in all another good day.

Julian Burton-Pierce
Red Watch