BT Global Challenge - Leg 2 - 25th October part two

Andy Magrath LG FLATRON, Wednesday 25th October;

'We've tacked to port, and are headed south, more or less, still in first place with second place 45 nm behind. Even we are beginning to believe in our own consistency. If we can keep this up then we could be first in and first out of the Doldrums, which is where the real gains are to be made. Things could go the other way of course, and as we park up in the Doldrums all the other boats sail right through us - nothing is set in stone.

We have got a good distance to the east and have finally picked up what you might call the trade winds, but we are still hard on the wind. None of us are sure when all the reaching under spinnaker will begin as we were promised by our skipper. Even this leg is turning out to be a windward slog - all be it with reduced waves and so there's no getting slammed around.

As I haven't been on the best of form with my mouth infection, Conrad has brought Dickon over from the other watch to take over the management of my watch. It will give me the chance to relax a bit and get better quicker - plus Dickon will be excellent in the role.

Now I am freed up a bit time-wise, it will give me the chance to take on more of an interest in specific parts of boat performance. We have a learning culture on the boat and I am going to look into weather and sail trim. Other members of the crew have taken on other topics. The idea, especially with sail trim, is to make sure that both watches are sharing information.

On Sunday I will be doing what we call the 'mother watch', which involves all the cooking and cleaning on the boat for 24 hours, shared with a crew member off the other watch. This is something that I've not done before, so the results - especially the cooking - could turn out to very entertaining.'

Most of the fleet has flipped onto port tack now, six going on Wednesday morning like LG FLATRON as the wind backed slightly. They started the race for distance south to get fully into the trade winds that will carry them down to the Doldrums. Another three boats had tacked to port by lunchtime, leaving just VERITAS, Spirit of Hong Kong and Norwich Union going east. LG FLATRON had extended their lead since Andy's report, and at 13.50 GMT on Wednesday afternoon, the BT Global Challenge website reported the positions and distances to the finish of the top six as:

1 LG FLATRON 4217 nm
2 Compaq 4272 nm
3 Quadstone 4272 nm
4 Team SpirIT 4302 nm
5 Save the Children 4324 nm
6 Logica 4329 nm