Ecover diary

Golding's crewman Marcus Hutchinson gives insight into life on an Open 60 after a week at sea in the TJV

Thursday has seen us covering Bobst Group who had made a big play in the west and then, in the evening with our updated forecasts, it became obvious that the side of the course to be on was moving back to the east.
Sill, Casto and Voila had all started to move higher on port and had gained more separation from us to the east. We spent a worrying night last night trying to get back upwind to be close to them. At one stage we even did two hours on starboard tack just to close the gap down. We have lost a lot of distance but feel better about our position now.

We broke the outhaul in a tack this morning and this took us about 45 minutes to repair when we had to sail with a reef in and a bit slower than normal. Other than that there is just the normal domestic chores to take care of during the day, cleaning, drying out, eating, sleeping, checking, all punctuated by the two hourly position report which is the highlight period .

Yesterday we ate some of Bonduelle's food, ratatouille and chicken in a boil in the bag arrangement, excellent it was too. Thanks Jean le Cam! At about 0400 this morning Mike broke out the Tate and Lyle gingerbread. It was very, very good. I don't think I've had any of that since my long departed grandmother served it for tea about 25 years ago.

It rained really hard last night and the boat badly needed a fresh water rinse after all that hard and fast sailing. Big salt crystals had started to appear everywhere.

The weather is warm on deck now, maybe we can even put the shorts on this afternoon although it is not as hot as I thought it would be here. I'm sure in a week I'll be regretting having ever said that.

Today I filmed a couple more interviews with myself! I think I'm really boring on camera, but we'll see. Could have done with a make up artist out here, we both look like we've been at sea in a 60 foot boat for a week now. Luckily Mike has a cold still so he can't smell the BO situation, which I am immune to. I'm looking forward to a rain shower in the Doldrums when it is warmer so as to get clean again.