Wednesday 25 February 2009

VOR: ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 11 QFB: Received 24.02.09 1156 GMT

by Torben Grael (skipper)

Ten days at sea and the clock keeps ticking, as do the miles - (touch wood).

First we got rid of the cold then we lost a digit (9.999 instead of 10 thousand something) and then the southern hemisphere. Now we are looking forward to cross the date line and jump into the western hemisphere. Some have got it even better but Doldrums went ok for us, at least I have no complaints. Jules (Jules Salter – navigator) wasn’t so happy with the lack of meteo information, but did a great job using the good old weather fax with the SSB.

Although our sailing conditions have been rather steady, things further south seem quite volatile and so does our routing through there. There is a big variety of routes going all over the place. Things have settled a little with the fleet appearing to be unanimous on the decision to go to the east of Fiji, but there are still big uncertainties further from there.

The crew seems quite focused and into their routine. The exception is the other two Brazilians which are a little preoccupied by this special date - its carnival in Brazil now. It’s not the first time that we are at sea in this regatta on this date.

The big difference to last time is obviously the amount of talk and laughter onboard especially on occasions like this.

The fact that we still have to eat freeze dried food for another 30 days is a worry, but it should probably help the diet I will have to do, to fit in a Star together with Marcelo again. We must be almost 20 kilos over right now...

It has been nice to virtually visit all this islands we are going through. It would be fantastic to visit at least some of them in the future. It is amazing how people live in so many little tiny ones in the middle of nowhere. Just need a more suitable boat with heaps more time.

Fair winds.

Volvo Ocean Race

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