Telifonica Blue Leg Five Day 8

This should be the last day of the relentless hard reaching for us. Not much to do tactically and not much to do navigation-wise as we've been unable to download any weather information for over 24hrs but that’s not to say that there is nothing to do. Upstairs it is all on with constant spray, big shifts and pushing the boat as hard as we can in the breeze we have.

It’s been a very one-way track since the start - drag racing vs track racing with minimal opportunities to gain - to gain big miles anyway. The leaders are still pretty much at the range they were when we restarted with the bungee cord only stretching and shrinking a bit over the last week. We've managed to get in front of the Dragons, but that's about it. We should see a pretty big compression over the next few days so we may get within fighting range again in the more varied stuff to come.

While the Fleet 33 has been out of action with a black spot that appears to have been about three times as large as predicted, I've been working with what information we can get from other sources to try to fill the gap. Its slim pickings and only really useful for getting to the other side of the doldrums and not much further - we are hoping that there are no major surprises for us on the other side - at least we have a few pathfinders in front of us so that's a bit of a blessing I suppose!

I've been browsing our electronic copy of the Pacific Ocean pilot book while we pick our way through a few islands and atolls - some amazing sounding places out here. Might have to come for a more relaxed sailing holiday with the family one day - although if you see me in the street, please remind me not to set out from Qingdao in a VO70 please - I'll have Sydney's best lawyers on my hands sooner than I can say ‘just one more week of this darl’.

7N 163E, doldrums at 3-5N - not long now.  Can't wait...

Tom Addis - Navigator