Catch up, end of leg 1

First leg. Well we made it at last. A massive thank you to all the supporters and thanks for the mails it is good to hear what's happening at home.

I'm sure you are all probably experts on the race and know more than I do.  We get to know very little while we are racing. The nav station where the computer is is permanently occupied by the skipper who uses it as his living room!! Need I say more.

Life on board varies in its comfort depending on what point of sail we are on, if the boat is flat it is so much easier than if we are beating into the wind and believe me the boat can heel over. When it is on its side and crashing through the waves life is very uncomfortable. Just moving around the boat from one grab rail to another on a wet floor is almost impossible.

We have various watch times, two 6 hour shifts 6am - 12 noon , 12- 6pm, then 4 hour shifts 6pm-10pm,10-2am 2am - 6am. we are woken up 20 minutes before shift change in order to get our clothes on and have to be on time on deck otherwise it's frowned upon as people are tired and ready for bed.

Every 7 days we take it in turns to do Mother watch - the cooking and cleaning for the whole boat. so porridge and cereal for breakfast. Large porridge pan a pain to wash in salt water then rinse out in fresh with tiny sinks and foot pumps for the water.  Then off to clean the heads (toilets),it's horrible, 2 baskets to empty one of used toilet paper !! which is put over the side. One of wet wipes we have to keep in the rubbish till port. . We have 2 toilets (pump as you dump) one with a seat which keeps breaking, thanks to Chris for mending it.. The use of these at 45 degrees is an art and hence they can get a bit messy. Back to mother watch, cleaning of all grab rails throughout the boat , bilge emptying , then time to make bread, after you've washed your hands of course! 4 loaves a day are required if possible , we have a bread oven but my last attempt rose too much and there was bread everywhere it was like a volcano! Lunch is sandwiches with canned Tuna or corned beef. Soup if we feel like more work. I made chocolate brownies which went down well, ok so not that clever you just added water. But more washing up. A few hours off in the afternoon before preparing tea. This consists of a very repetative menue of spaghetti with a sauce  or rice with something added. We eat tinned peas, tinned beans, sweet corn , cous cous as a meal, yes as you may know not mine or a few other peoples favourites. Depending who is making it it could have a spice or herb added to make it more pallatable but there is always sweet chilli dipping sauce to cover up the taste. I always make myself eat what I can as you really need to eat for the energy.

One of the girls, Lesley, works for Mars and we had the most enormous amount of chocolate ,Mars MandM s and Minstrels, deliverd to Southampton. Some people seem to live on these. In Rio we have had another quarter of a tonn of M+M's and twix delivered so have given a lot away as this is equivalent to 5 people in weight . Perhaps should have given it all to Gold Coast to slow them down!

Showers.- none really on mother watch we are suposed to be able to have a dribble of a shower in one of the Heads but it is not worth it . I did wash my hair with a cup and bowl once but otherwise no shower for 3 weeks! to be honest you get used to it Nick Constantine one of my friends gave me some army wet wipes like flannel size which were really good, thanks Nick please send more! Also thanks Pete for the surface wipes they kill every germ dead and people love them as they smell so stong they seem like they must kill everything. More of those please!

Anyway back to duties after tea washing up takes a while, clean the heads again then wash the floor in saloon and galley and that is it, mother watch over, and for that your treat is that you get to miss the next shift and have an extra long sleep. So 9-10pm bed then either up at 6am or can be 12 noon dependent on shifts.

Wild life- The most amazing thing is the abundence of fying fish they were everywhere accross the atlantic not just the odd one but whole shoals like starlings would take off from the side of the boat and would sometimes fly for 100m. In the morning we do find some on deck and a few crew have been hit by them in the night!

Dolphins we have seen a few but the best was one night we had phosphorescent planton in the water so as the waves break or the boat goes through the water it all sparkles like glitter. A dolphin came to visit and as it moved and darted through the water it left a trail of glitter like a comet fantastic to see.

About 5 days from Rio we went over an area where the depth of water went from 1350m to 100m and it was quite rough weather with big waves. I am not exaggerating we saw beteen 30 -50 hump back whales they were everywhere doing tail waggles or breaching and some fin slaps. Quite often they were in pods of 2 or more . We actually had to steer past them. I was on the helm steering and really nearly hit one it was 6 ft from the front then dived down and came up 10 ft from the side of the boat. Some were huge but lovely to see from a distance...... not so close please.

Time- some days go really slowly having 3 sleeps a day sometimes not sure what time it is and never know which day it is. So each day can feel like 3 and I think it can only be described as glacial.... nothing happens fast, the sea just goes on and on and on day after day. The last week was vey frustating every day we woke up and it was 3 days to Rio like a nightmare always 3 days to go. but we eventually made it.

Rio- We have spent 2 days doing boat jobs then checked into a Hotel, really nice to have a bathroon and bed on a level. We hired bikes and did the beaches and city one day. Yesterday we did the Christ statue and sugar loaf mountain with a spot of lunch thrown in, very good. Great to see the sights.

Back to the boat today to see how the second sail we broke is which we could not mend all ourselves and it had to go to a sail loft, this comes back today and I need to do some more work on it before it is ready to fly.

Next Leg tomorrow. Unfortunatly the forcast is for upwind sailing all the way to Cape Town so the boat will be on its side all the way not fun. We will do our best to do better in the placings lets see what happens.

At least it will not be as hot as it was in the equator Chris my farmer friend on board said one morning about our sleeping area " Even my cattle have better conditions and ventilation than us"

I am sure there is much more to tell you about the people on board but 5 have finishers and we have 4 or 5 new people joining for the next leg. The chaps leaving were great and will be missed, thanks to you all and I enjoyed sailing with you very much.

More when I get to Cape Town, bye for now and thanks so much for all your support.

Love David