Green Dragon update

Ian Walker reports from on board during their big breeze qualifier for the Volvo Ocean Race

Day 4 - Position: 59,33.32N , 19,3.81W

We have just gybed in 30 knots, about 180 miles south of Iceland which marks the half way point of our qualifier. The last 24 hours have been relatively news free which is nice to report. It is raining, very grey and we still haven't seen any boats since day one. Right now we are enjoying great ride in a 25-30 knot north-easterly. In fact, for the last hour we have averaged over 22 knots of boat speed, with a top speed 30.3! We have tried to seal up the abundance of leaks around the bunks, but it still leaves a bit to be desired. It is a brave man who takes off his oilskins to sleep right now. Guo Chaun and Huang Jian have taken some excellent photos and video, but I think they are grateful they are not having to edit it onboard on this trip. We have destroyed one computer already with water ingress, so we will leave the others tucked away. It is clear that the onboard media role is going to be a tough one to fill. With current progress we should be home on Wednesday, which would be two days ahead of schedule. If we stay incident free and maintain this wind, 450 plus mile days should be no problem. Fingers crossed that is what happens
Have fun,
Ian

Day 3
Position: 59,32.2N, 020.6W
Its 5 o'clock on Sunday morning and fairly grey, cold and damp as we turn our Northernmost waypoint at 5932 .2N 020.6W - for those with keen geography that is approximately halfway between the Outer Hebrides and the Faroe Islands, northwest of mainland Scotland. We have come east of our intended route to avoid some very heavy winds in the North Atlantic. We are now turning west to head directly for our next waypoint 200 miles south of Iceland. We currently have 10 knots of wind and we are sailing at 11 knots under full main and mast head zero but we are expecting the breeze to build again. We are making good progress having sailed 700 miles in our first 40 hours. It is turning out to be an excellent test for crew and boat. Despite pushing the boat hard we have suffered little breakage although we have some work to do on waterproofing the boat - pretty much every bunk is dripping wet and all sleeping bags are now unusable - it is hard for the lads to recover for their next watch when there is little respite down below. More work for the shore team but most importantly nothing serious for us. This is a pretty lonely part of the world - we have seen only one fishing boat since rounding the Fastnet and I doubt too many others would be silly enough to be out here right now.

If the rest of the trip goes well we hope to be back in Cork by late Wednesday / early Thursday.
Ian