BT Global Challenge - Leg 3 - 17th December

Andy Magrath, LG FLATRON, Sunday 17th December;

We are in third place, which is better than some of our more recent positions! And still playing the eastern, offshore side - hopefully to our advantage. The spinnaker work apears to be over and it is now upwind sailing, possibly all the way to Wellington.

We had our first relatively rough sail change today. It was a good opportunity to try out some changes to our usual headsail change method. There is always a bowman (number one), a number two and a number three or sweeper who helps bring the sail down and removes and re-ties the sheets. We are constantly thinking of ways to improve safety, efficiency and speed of a sail change.

At the moment our minds are very much on the rougher weather ahead and how to perform safely on the foredeck. We have taped a lot of foam padding to anything which might block our path on the way down the deck which works very well - as I found out about two hours ago!

On deck we are all now wearing hats and gloves due to the cold. No one wants to put all their clothing on too early in the leg as we would have nothing in reserve for later when it gets seriously cold. We are getting quite squally weather at present with reefs going in and out with body warming regularity. We will soon be past the Falkland Islands, and from there it is through the Magellan Straits and round Cape Horn.

The mood on the boat is good at the moment. It is positive to get a bit of 30 knot plus weather under our belts and a few wet foredeck headsail changes to get our minds focused on the task ahead.

At 07.55 GMT on Sunday 17th December, the BT Global Challenge website reported the positions and distances to the finish of the top six as:

1 Norwich Union 4761 nm
2 Isle of Man 4773 nm
3 LG FLATRON 4786 nm
4 Compaq 4795 nm
5 Spirit of Hong Kong 4806 nm
6 Quadstone 4808 nm