GREEN DRAGON EMAIL: 'Hats off to Ericsson 4'

Wednesday 29 October 2008 14:33

Hats off to Ericsson 4 for a storming 24 hours. By my calculations they can't be far off 600 miles. We have just about been able to match them when we have had a steady 3 hours, but sail changes, reefing and backing off at night has kept our 24 hour mileage in check.

We must be somewhere near the old record, but nobody will speak of that anymore. More importantly we have been able thus far to stay ahead of the front, but we have had to head further north than we would like to.

We are starting to see the effect of 'stepping off the train' on Delta Lloyd and Team Russia and we want to delay that as long as we can. Sooner or later it will happen to us, but the faster we go the later it will be. We are now directly east of our closest competitors for 3rd place so they should suffer first.

Life on deck is very wet and the occasional nosedives have meant a few bangs and bruises. Everyone is bearing up well but tonight will be a long night. God only knows how the boat puts up with the stresses we put on it but apart from the usual disintegration of the head we are in good shape.

Received 14:33 GMT