PUMA EMAIL: 'It's freezing up here...'

Sunday, 17 May 2009, 23:30 GMT

PUMA - Rick Deppe (Media Crew member)

It's freezing up here in lobster country and I mean really freezing - it's bone-chillingly cold even down below where I'm hiding right now! Add to the cold a thick, dense fog that has descended all around us in the last few hours. This fog of course makes life extremely damp and did I mention yet that it's very, very cold?

There are lobster pots everywhere and already today we snagged a couple of them, luckily we managed to keep sailing with nothing more than a few nervous moments as we felt the buoy banging along the hull and then popping out the back. Tele Blue were not so fortunate and we saw them having to back down from one. Thankfully as the water gets deeper there will be less pots. We are hearing a lot of chatter on the VHF radio, it's Canadian fishermen probably out of Halifax, we haven't seen any of them yet though. Too cold!

The fleet is pretty much neck and neck at the moment and in fact at 1200 GMT we rounded the southern tip of Nova Scotia with every boat in sight and Ericsson 4 right on our transom. The whole fleet has the hammer down and as always it's the usual tight drag race out of the starting blocks with no-one wanting to make a break or do anything radical... just keep each other in sight and wait for an opportunity to either present itself or to be taken.

The seas at the moment are quite flat even though it's blowing a solid 18 to 20 knots. Not much pounding makes a for a pleasant sailing experience and the low rumble of the boat at speed is a nice reminder that the miles are clicking by quickly, getting us closer to Galway all the time.

It normally takes me a few days to settle in to life at sea, but this trip I've made a conscious effort to try and get into a routine much more quickly. This is by far the shortest leg so far and it's going to be important to get into the routine as quickly as possible. I've been forcing myself to get into all the 'minister of the interior' duties that fall under my responsibility... bilges need to be kept dry and the meals have been flying out the galley, Capey's even been getting his coffees in short order, all this  before I've even started with the media work.

Rick

Received 23:30 GMT