Madeira

Hi chaps , just in Madiera now after a 10 day race from Southampton. After the big send off weekend it took a while to settle in to the daily life on board especially as you will have seen we had to drop the anchor twice , I thought I had signed up for a sailing trip! We eventually got going when the wind picked up and turned the corner into the Bay of Biscay. Things got a bit choppier then and we broke the clipper record for the most miles done in 12hours not much consolation though when we got to Madiera last. You can imagine how I felt about that( come second you've lost). Life on board takes some getting used to each day seems to take a long time to go by as you are up and back to bed three times in any one day,. We have been non stop mending and making things I have spent hours and hours on rope sipping and sewing of storage pockets and various other things. The food is quite good really, lots of pasta with sauces and rice with curry. Not a lot of meat . We have a lot of Mars bars and minstrels on board and haribos so they supplement the diet. Mike at work is running a sweep stake on my weight loss. So update is a bit has gone but still got the tummy rolls! Seen a few dolphins and heard some whales in the distance at night blowing. Other than that got see Madiera's spectacular mountains as we came in. Mandy and Penny and her friend Lara were here to meet me which was great. However because we ripped a spinica in half , actually more than half we had a good attempt at destroying it and I am in the sail mending team (of 2) we have spent the whole stop over in the sail loft with the sail streched out sticking, ironing and sewing . I would never have believed we could have mended it but this trip is full of highs and lows and after 17 hours constant work with Mandy grafting away on her knees we eventually pieced it all together. Next race starts today down to Rio 3.5 weeks so let's see how we do. Our team are all good but we need to focus more on sailing rather than mending the boat. The winning team were very focused on the sailing with their skipper driving them on and pushing them to the limits , he had them sitting on the rail for four hours at a time , and that is what you need to win. Our boat is a bit like a sunshine cruise compared.  The skipper very much leaves us to our selves to sail the boat so maybe we need to be more focused. Anyway enough of that next race 7 hours away so need to get going . Love to you all at home and thanks for all the support at the send off weekend and keep in touch through the email I will try to reply in Rio. Cheers David 

Thursday.......I think

Not really sure what day it is and am very tired, on mother watch today so been up since 2am and it is now 1.30pm.  It's been a very frustrating race start, we went out into the channel and there was no wind, in fact on two occasions we had the tide against us and we were going backwards so had to drop the anchor! The 3rd day was once again slow along the coast of France. Eventually we managed to get into the Bay of Biscay and the sea became lumpy and the wind blew quite strong. I was watch leader for 2 shifts as Keith my main watch leader was on Mother duty. it all went well with highs and lows but it was the longest 4 hours because I just wanted it to finish without incident.  I suppose I'll get used to it the more I get to know the boat. Today (I think it's Thursday) we hit another wind hole so progress poor and the other boats are further south and nearer the land so we are not doing very well but there's still a long way to go. Not sure if we are going to make Maderia in time to see Mandy and Penny, it is just so slow. 

Everyone onboard is great and we all seem to get on ok not personal friends or anything as really early days but no arguments or stress although a few people are ill. 

Thought this might help Mike at work with the weight loss sweepstake

We've got the media on board so loads of filming and interviews.
Thanks to all of you who came to see me in Southampton, what and amazing send off you were all brilliant and I loved being able to hold the Olympic torch, thanks also to everyone who sent cards and best wishes.  I hope you are all following the race viewer. Must go as Skip needs the computer!