BT diary update by Andy Magrath on LG Flatron

The pizza is just fine it's the wind that causes the problems

Mother watch today. I have just made lunch: pizza for 18 people!
Our menus are excellent if not a little elaborate for an ocean-going racing yacht. After cleaning the heads, baking cherry cookies, brewing numerous cups of tea and making lunch - all at an angle of 30 degrees heel - one can't help but develop 'mother's hump'. It is not a medical condition recognised in the Ships Captain's medical guide, but it is very serious nonetheless.

It is important to approach someone suffering with mother's hump with great caution. Do not ask for anything too out of the ordinary as refusal often offends. The symptoms are obvious to those in the know. Lack of sense of humour, tired, haggard looking face, food plastered all over his/her shirt and an unusually high quantity of swearing. Recognise these symptoms and avoid the 'mother' at all costs!

Back to the sailing.

The last couple of days have been tactically very interesting and naturally very frustrating. The problem has been how to work our way through the Canary Islands. Firstly we were caught in the wind shadow of Hierro. This did not lose us a great deal but the next island caused us more problems. We passed Hierro to starboard and planned to pass La Palma to port. As we were south of La Palma starboard watch took a lift and sailed closer to the island than was wise.

There is a predicted wind shadow to the south of the island when the wind direction is NNE and we sailed straight into it. We lost about 30 miles and ended up sailing south to get out of it. By the early hours of this morning we were 58 miles behind the lead, 36 behind Compaq and neck and neck with BP. As we approach Madeira we are still alongside BP tacking on the wind shifts. The breeze is between 14-22 knots so we are changing from the No 1 yankee and No 2 accordingly. With the wind at 056 we are on starboard tack and when the wind shifts to 020/030 we go onto port tack - simple really.

As I write this we are attempting to avoid the wind shadow of Madeira! Logica, Isle of Man and Teamspirit have all parked up near the island. We are 35 miles behind the leaders Compaq who are 200 miles to the east. The next 6-12 hrs will be very interesting as we pass out of the lee of Madeira and start to get more north into our course. With just over 1000 nm to go and us being only 35 miles behind the lead, after a rather depressing couple of days, there is light at the end of the tunnel.