B&Q makes good progress overnight

by Team Ellen on 5 May 2006 B&Q MAKES GAINS OVERNIGHT...
5 May 2006 // 08:08

B&Q has made good progress overnight as they approach the halfway mark of the leg this morning. The lighter airs which slowed them for the majority of yesterday improved last night as they sped up from three to twelve knots. The wind has shifted overnight to the southeast and they are now heading south west at nine knots, as they navigate a safe passage along the Vietnamese coastline. Once at the southern tip of the coastline, B&Q will head across the gulf of Thailand and onto the finish gate at Tumpai.

After a slow start to leg 9, conditions have improved as B&Q gains some speed and sails southwest towards the gulf of Thailand.

Latest news from Charles Darbyshire:

'WOW can't believe it's time to send an update again, time certainly travels pretty fast when conditions are good.

'We had a huge amount of fishing boats last night - mainly anchored and fishing with very bright lights - which are deceptive as you don't know if it's a bright light which is a long way away or a small light close by!! But we weaved back and forth and eventually sailed clear - under Code Zero to start with - then this morning changed to gennaker. We sailed for quite a while like that before the wind headed us a little too much, so we are now sailing at 90 degrees to the wind with full main and genoa. We have 8 knots of wind, and 11 knots of boatspeed, with lovely warm flat water and the sun behind the sails, so we have finally found some shade, which is very good news. We are ahead of our expectations too as we were expecting less wind. I had a shocker trying to sleep last night - just couldn't manage to find a spot that was cool and comfortable so ended up back on watch without any sleep, so by 4 am I crashed for a really good sleep, the tiredness overcoming the heat and discomfort - also it might have something to do with the fact I had a full on wash down and shave - felt very clean again, the others have followed suit today - I think it must help a little bit.

'The Major drama of the morning though was running over a fishing net, we have done that a few times before, but this time the net was a lighter weight one near the surface. We hit as usual with the daggerboard, but this time it collected on the main rudder.... we tried to clear it with the boat hook (long pole with a hook on the end) but only succeeded in bending it into a neat 90 degree curve!

'Eventually though we were able to hook it and bring it far enough onboard enough to take a knife to it, which was not our preferred option, but very necessary. We cleared the rest of the net with the knife, then lifted the rudder to see if there was any damage. Luckily we didn’t find any so we set off again.

'Conditions onboard are great today - the heading means that in the afternoon the sun is behind the sails leaving much of the boat in the shade - cooler below - and more places to hide on deck - earlier in the day though it's a challenge to get five people onto the only square meter of shaded deck!!

'The last of our pot noodle stock has disappeared as lunch today, and we are trying to eat anything that is going off quickly. I managed to salvage a bit of bread that hadn't been overrun with green mould - before consigning the remainder to the deep. Snickers bars, and other chocolate treats are becoming either messy to eat or impossible, and some of the more traditional snacks are taking over - ritz crackers, and rasin biscuits seem fairly stable in this environment. The Peanut M&Ms are all eaten, but we have some pistachio nuts and some cashews, that I think Erwan will add to some kind of pasta dish again tonight. He seems to have taken over evening meal duties - good job though as he's pretty good at it!!! He won't have any fresh fish though - his fishing exploits have been curtailed due to the high boatspeed – but believe me no one is complaining....'