BT Global Challenge - Leg 1 - 27th September

On Tuesday, the winds were building 20-30 knots and we had the 2.2 oz spinnaker up. My watch were down below eating lunch, while the other watch were sailing the boat. Gathered around the saloon table we heard a loud bang. That's never a good noise on a sailboat. Especially when it's followed by a wild change of course as we spun up into the wind in a huge broach. There was another, even louder cracking noise and the boat levelled off.

'ALL HANDS ON DECK'

We scrambled for our foul weather gear, plates and food and stuff everywhere. The spinnaker guy, which holds the tack of the spinnaker and the pole aft, had somehow been allowed to run free. The pole had crashed into the forestay as the boat broached and the spinnaker pole had snapped in two.

Conrad was almost first on deck, and by the time I had emerged, the spinnaker halyard had been allowed to run, so the whole sail was now half submerged behind us like a huge sea anchor. There is a huge rush of adrenaline at moments like this and you just forget how tired you were. We got it sorted out, but the spinnaker pole is still broken, fortunately we have two.

So we got the spinnaker right back up there and we were running downwind for a long while. Last night the sailing was fantastic. We had full main with the headsail poled out on the opposite side, flying downwind with a big swell building behind us, surfing on the waves at 13 knots - not bad for a yacht weighing 40 tonnes!

This time it was the turn of my watch - around midnight we did a massive crash gybe in 30 knots of breeze. The boom preventer snapped (which should hold the boom out on one side) and the boom whistled over our heads. Then there was a brief moment of calm, before another bang - and the pole downhaul parted company with the pole. That left it waving around in the air, and us with the question of how to retrieve it. We really didn't want to break the second pole.

It was time for the watch change, so we had everyone on deck and to calm things down we put two reefs in the main. Then we let things settle down and had the starboard watch sort it all out. I crashed into my bunk one and a half hours late, soaking wet and exhausted.

As I write this, the wind is north-west and Quadstone are well away in front. We are 14 miles behind BP who are in second and ten miles behind Compaq in third, but we are north of both these boats and should have some advantage. It's about 24 hrs to Boston and much could still happen, we are hoping for second place and pushing hard. Anyone who's out there and will be in Boston, we'll see you there - my next message will be from dry land."

Since Andy wrote his report, LG FLATRON have closed the gap to Compaq a little, but are still in fourth. At 13.50 on Wednesday afternoon GMT, the BT Global Challenge website reported the positions and distances to the finish of the top six as:

1 Quadstone 149 nm
2 BP 200 nm
3 Compaq 208 nm
4 LG FLATRON 216 nm
5 Isle of Man 243 nm
6 VERITAS 246 nm