BT Global Challenge - Leg 2 - 31st October

After cleaning up there is just enough time to prepare the off-watch drink bottles and make the guys on watch a cup of tea. Then a few hours kip before waking up at 07:30 - time to help out with breakfast. I have my porridge and then get ready to serve up the dish of the day to the opposite watch as they come down below. Then it's time to wash up all the breakfast dishes, pots and cutlery, before going onto the next job. This was preparing the snack of the day - cookies with cherries in. More of the adding water to a mix, sticking the cherries in and placing in the oven. And more cleaning to be done. I do the forward half of the boat and check the bilges which need pumping, then get all of the rest of the water out with a mop.

Just time for a cup of tea for the guys on deck, then my big job of the day - prepare lunch. It's pizza - yes pizza! And you guessed it, add water to the dough mix, make a tomato topping plus some rehydrated sweetcorn, make into four pizzas (two per watch) and Bob's your uncle! Just bear in mind the 30 degree angle of heel and yes, everything does go everywhere - more cleaning. It's like a circus act providing on-board entertainment as various utensils and foodstuffs fly around.

At 14:00 hours - exhausted - I actually eat some of the pizza myself. Back on watch at 20:00, I need to serve dinner to the other watch and then wash everything up, empty the bin, clean the galley, make cups of tea for my watch and then ... it is midnight and finally the day is over and time for bed!

We are now approaching the area known as the doldrums or ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone). We are still leading, but are the most westerly of the top four boats. We feel that this gives us the best chance of hitting the narrowest band of the doldrums, and think that the boats to the east may hit a larger band of fickle wind.

The disadvantage is that we have the tightest angle to get round the Brazilian coast in the south-easterly breeze the other side of the doldrums and may have to tack. If we get through the doldrums quickly this won't be a problem, but if we don't and the other boats have a clear run through then they will be in a better position.

And once around Capo Branco, it is a drag race to Buenos Aires. So by next weekend the pack may have been shuffled considerably. This is a very interesting part of the race with regard to tactics and the internet is important to us. All the yachts are allowed 30 minutes of internet use per week, and Conrad and Cian our navigator are currently using their connected time wisely - plotting our best route through this tricky section.'


LG FLATRON were still in the lead on Tuesday afternoon, with the fleet converging on the tip of Brazil, all on port tack in the easterly trade winds. They are fast closing on the doldrums, the leaders are all slowing and the fleet compressing. The BT Global Challenge forecaster, Chris Tibbs, reckons they should have a relatively easy passage, with the wind not dropping much below five or six knots. But the squalls and clouds will still provide some unsettled weather and the opportunity for gains and losses in the next few days. At 13.47 GMT on Tuesday 31st October, the BT Global Challenge website reported the positions and distances to the finish of the top six as:

1 LG FLATRON 3010 nm
2 Compaq 3059 nm
3 Logica 3089 nm
4 Quadstone 3091 nm
5 BP 3091 nm
6 Team SpirIT 3109 nm