Ericsson 4 Leg Five Day 7

6 days down and 30+ to go and a few strange personal traits are beginning to surface

One of the crew obviously has aspirations of starring on Broadway or in the west end. Tony surprised all today by coming on watch as if he were ready for the final scenes of the stage hit "Phantom of the Opera" as the lead roll. He had the left side of his face covered in his Phantom mask - only his was from baby anti rash cream. It transpired that this was actually due to the prolonged port tack we have been on and the saltwater constant spray is playing havoc with his skin.

Another country mate of Tony also turned his nose up at lunch - a rare occurrence - this was purely due to one word on the packet - vegetarian - no prises for guessing the meat and 2 veg man, but I don’t have the heart to tell Brad (Jackson) that his favourite dish onboard of roast lamb probably is as close to lamb as any tofu based meat extract. Though it may bring a good reaction in a few days though!

It’s great when the afterguard just click and today Torben (Grael) and Jules (Salter) were planning their holidays together. As we pass through Micronesia’s many islands they were both discussing the merits of a couple of months trip in the region. They did hit a small stumbling block when choosing the method of travel, Torben thinking a plane based island hop and Jules preferring to catch the mail boat between the many atolls. Personally I wouldn’t mind either method as it does seem like a wonderful place.

I guess being on one tack with minimal sail changes can be a little dull, don’t get me wrong as we are all happy to be here - especially for what could be the clearest night skies on earth. But we all do feel it is little like Groundhog Day. Its even more frustrating being without our main satellite connection, hours and hours are spent trying to download weather and also failing to upload pictures - but I also guess it must be frustrating on land watching the race as your normal days continue at the usual high speed whilst the info from the race is considerably less than normal. I just hope that when we come back online the flood of info will be like when your power is restored after a power cut (lights on everywhere and TV on) - we are also approaching a notorious black spot for satellite coverage so we may be no comms for a day or so!

One last thought is that if we were out here on port for much longer we may present a good case for any Darwinian supporter – I’m convinced that one leg is shorter than the other and none of us can get rid of our left handed side partings. But that’s port tack for you and we may have a few more days of it to go.

Guy Salter - MCM