DAY 42 - MARK JENKINS

It’s been an exciting few days. Morale is soaring as we look forward to our last week at sea. With some calm conditions we managed to get overboard and clean the boat today. Another rare event occurred when, having waited for most of the race for a visitor we have just received 2 in one go. The race support yacht ‘Mystique’ appeared almost at the same time as we received a visit from a huge ocean liner called ‘the World’. The captain used his VHF radio to communicate with us and then they announced who were to all of their passengers. The cruise liner came amazingly close and but it was navigated with such skill that we didn’t feel in danger – thank you Captain Lancaster! It was quite a surreal moment with all the passengers on deck looking at our piddling little boat and snapping away on their cameras. We had a good chat with liner on the VHF radio but had to turn down their kind offer of food and drinks – it’s against race regulations don’t you know!

Taking on a bit of boat cleaning in the calm conditions!

The weather has been quite rough for the last few days and we always seem to fare well in those conditions but now that we are almost neck and neck with the Polo boys I fear that things are going to calm down again. We are going to keep fighting all the way to the line but the bad weather is our best chance of making it in the best possible time. Today was almost flat calm which is a bit frustrating. I have also had to deal with our computer which has been playing up since we capsized and has put a real damper on our media transmissions – sorry for our lack of blogs! The computer has been up and down for a few weeks now but things are finally looking up. My mentor Tom Stanbury the computer guru would be proud.

Other more surreal things are taking place too. Scott has developed a sixth sense and has now been nicknamed ‘rainman’ – no matter what the weather is can tell you if the rain is on its way or not. He has become at one with the ocean! All of this could be down to the latest craze between Scott and Cayle who have taken to giving each other beard massages – it seems to be bringing them some kind of strange happiness. Other odd behaviours are emerging due to the completion for scare treats onboard - the lack of food even led me to successfully offer dinner with my girlfriend to Scott, all in exchange for a Snickers bar.

There is something unnerving about all this – can we get to land please!