Volvo Ocean Race - Great day onboard Puma's Mar Mostro

by Amory Ross on 27 Mar 2012 Volvo Ocean Race, Day 8 of Leg 5. Amory Ross, MCM for Puma Ocean Racing powered by Berg, reports on the crew's progress:

'Brushing my teeth for the first time… I’m going to use twice the amount of toothpaste to cover me the rest of the way,' Casey Smith.

Today was a great day among good ones, and for no reason in particular. Sometimes a bunch of little things add up and you find yourself riding a high of the likes you haven’t felt in far too long. We’ve had an intense week of fairly constant abuse and it’s always nice when someone turns down the volume for a short while.

A few contributing factors:
- Casey’s up and running. I told him he was getting a first-hand experience for what the MCM’s have to live like: look but don’t touch. Everyone’s happy to see he and Thomas on their way to full recoveries, only just in time for another hard few days of 30-40 knots on the approach towards the Cape.

- It was a beautiful day. The weather eased up just enough to actually enjoy being outside. The sun was out all day and I wore my sunglasses for the first time since Auckland. While tearing through the Southern Ocean at 30 knots is fun and fast, it’s exhausting, and today’s down speed lulls were refreshingly quiet and uneventful. There was plenty of story telling on the tanning deck behind the wheels.

- The beef stroganoff has been found! One of the onboard favorites, we packed a bunch for this leg but up until this afternoon, it had gone missing. Better late than never…

- Telefónica and Camper’s problems have given us some much-needed breathing room. Our 'take the foot off the gas' mentality has gotten us this far, but it’s not always the quickest and there’s no comfort in seeing everyone else around you going faster. We’re extremely happy everyone’s safe and well, but there’s no hiding the fact that their absence has taken the pressure off and lightened the mood considerably.

- We’re closer to Cape Horn than we are New Zealand. Progress has been slow to realize this leg given the hard conditions and lack of sleep, but with less than 2,000 miles to a major milestone – maybe the milestone – we have something to look forward to!

So that’s it, or at least all I can think of at this time. A great day onboard Puma’s Mar Puma Ocean Racing Volvo Ocean Race website