movistar out there somewhere and battling on

by Bouwe Bekking on 14 Mar 2006 Not sure who will still read our daily reports. Assume only our families and real supporters, as there is no excitement from the position reports.

Still hard on the wind, and it is bumpy, so foullies are on once again as the spray is flying over movistar. But what a difference the full moon is making. It would have been nice to have some of this light in the Southern Ocean where on several nights we could not even see the mast, it was so dark.

So we are counting the miles, 1 Hobart distance to go. Lots of talking on the rail, mainly regarding the families, hobbies and other yacht races.

The only sea life we have seen in the last couple of days, was a big turtle trying to find some shade under a floating plastic fish bin.

But there is plenty of trash in the water, and amazingly it gets all of our attention, you just want to know what it is. A small game is for how long can you follow the object. Jono (Swain) has the eyes of hawk on the boat, but I am happy that I’m a close second, not bad for an old man.

0600 GMT, a very relaxed watch change is going on, we are giving the 2 fresh one's, who will come on deck, way more time than usual, as there is no need for a full squad on. Helmsman and one person on the traveller is it all takes right now.

And yes, once again doing the report, no volunteers when it is bumpy, they all avoid the navstation, as it is not the most comfortable place to be right now.

Bouwe Bekking

LEG FOUR DAY 23, 13.03.06, 1600 GMT POSITION REPORT
YACHT SGPTS PLPTS PTLPTS FINISH TIME ELAPSED TIME POINTS
OVERALL POSITION OVERALL
1 ABN1 3.5 7.0 10.5 11/03/06 03:18:23 020d 01h 48m 23s 49.0 1
2 POTC 3 6.0 9.0 11/03/06 07:06:50 020d 05h 36m 50s 30.5 3
3 ABN2 2 5.0 7.0 11/03/06 07:36:10 020d 06h 06m 10s 35.0 2
4 BRA1 2.5 4.0 6.5 11/03/06 07:55:04 020d 06h 25m 04s 26.5 5
5 ERIC 1.5 3.0 4.5 11/03/06 19:12:52 020d 17h 42m 52s 21.0 6

YACHT DTF SMG 24 Hour Run 24 Hour Speed SGPTS PLPTS PTLPTS ETA POP POSITION OVERALL
6 MOVI 00531 10.6 238 09.9 1 2.0 3.0 15/03/06 20:58:29 28.0 4

ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean


DTF: distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader,

DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll

SGPTS: points scored at scoring gates on this leg to date

PLPTS: projected leg points

PTLPTS: projected total leg points including actual points from scoring gates

POP: projected overall points including actual points from scoring gates

OVERALL: projected position in race overall if yacht maintains current position