ERICSSON 4 EMAIL: 'Waiting to turn'

Friday 24th October 2008 20:30

Guy Salter (Media Crew Member)

Well it’s 8:30 on a Friday night, most people are relaxing after a hard weeks work by having a nice dinner, seeing friends, having a quiet night in front of the telly or binge drinking. It’s not too dissimilar here on board E4 – dinner was ok, (that is if you like freeze dried curry mush for the 14th time this week) we are all still friends onboard (considering the majority of them are only getting about 5hrs sleep a day in several stages and we all stink after not washing adequately – that’s quite an achievement) and every night is a relatively quite night in due to the vast expanse of ocean surrounding us – the only thing we don’t do is the binge drinking and that will come a couple of days from the finish line when the coffee comes in to play and sleep is removed from the daily timetable.

It’s been an odd week, getting through the doldrums, crossing the equator and passing the scoring gate. We managed a very credible 2nd through the scoring gate off the Isle Fernando Norunha and have been in sight of our arch leg rivals on Puma. This afternoon we were joined by another competitor – Telefonica Black – all within sight and a few minutes ago we spotted the leaders – Green Dragon Team – who must be getting very twitchy seeing us three boats hunting them down, and getting closer by the hour.

All of us are headed in an almost SW direction down the coast of Brazil and await lighter winds before we turn hard left and head to Cape Town riding a low pressure to get us there very quickly. It probably wont be long until some of the teams play their ‘Stealth Play” – (a tool which will not allow the other competitors to see your boat for a 12 hr period) to try and hide the time they break for Africa, it’s a bit like playing the joker in ‘it’s a Knockout’ but without Stuart Halls laughter and big foam suits - although I personally think these would be a great addition to the race!

So who first for the break and who will go in to the stealth mode? Guess it depends on if we are all still in sight of each other – and seeing as we are after 4000 miles then id say there is a good chance that we will be as we enter Table Bay.

Guy, Ericson 4