Mark Rudiger diary

Assa Abloy's navigator sends his thoughts from the South Atlantic

Well here we are racing up the coast of South America. Just five days ago we were focusing on survival in the Southern Ocean, and cold was the adjective of the day.

My main focus then was to keep the crew and boat safe, and make sure we rounded the Horn within passing distance of the fleet with boat and crew in fighting order.

Every other sentence was how far to the Horn... Now that we have achieved that goal and the Horn is behind us, we are once again racing for boat lengths sometimes and trying to make sense of the complex weather patterns that prevail in this part of the world.

Back during our rounding, we looked at the option of going East of the Falklands, but decided it would be a gamble, and that the West and North would win out in the end. Now that we are surfing along in the southwesterly, it feels better. In fact the latest sked just came in and we gained 15 miles on djuice and Amer One to the east of us and a few on the rest in our group. Go Assa Abloy!

Last night we started peeling off the first layer of thermals put on almost two weeks ago. Three more layers to go, then we'll be fighting for shade and waiting for nightfall to escape the burning inferno. In the last race, Cayard once asked me after this leg if I had the choice, would I want to go by ice or by fire. For me, as much as I hate cold, I would still take it over extreme heat. Which means we'll enjoy a few days in between.

Magnus and I were just looking at the large scale chart, and it hit us that when we approach Rio, we will be within a few hundred miles of where we were on leg Ooe just over four months ago! I got a warm feeling inside knowing we are tangibly closer to another successful circumnavigation. How much we've learned and seen since then. How much the Team has gelled and now we do manoeuvres without talking (although with Aussies and Kiwis around, there will always be some cursing).

It also feels good to know we have the Assa Abloy family of South America waiting for us in Rio. Each stopover is like a homecoming. And if it is anything like last time, it will be quite a party!

Personally the thing I'm looking forward to initially is good food. The freeze-dried is getting less and less palatable. I eat the bare minimum to keep me going. Then to have 12 hours to just do nothing, take breath and look back on the adventure we just survived, and of course to see Lori, Zayle, and all our friends.

These are the things that keep us driving like maniacs. Like now, when we're running with the big Kahuna up in 33 knots, everything and everybody as far back as they can squeeze, averaging over 20 knots, no one speaking a word. This is the Volvo Ocean Race Around the World.

Mark "Rudi" Rudiger
ASSA ABLOY RACING TEAM

For some of Richard Mason's excellent photos from on board Assa see the next page...