Global Ocean Race- Under way but not under command - Field's Sunday

by Ross and Campbell Field on 3 Oct 2011 Ross and Campbell Field report from abroad Buckley Systems in the Global Ocean Race:

If a ship goes by with the ‘Not Under Command’ label transmitted on its AIS then who is in charge. Is it because everyone gets a day off on Sunday, including the Captain? And, Ross has a sniffle. Who the hell did he catch that from?

So, I can get mobile phone signal 30nm off the coast of an island in the Atlantic Ocean and 25 off the coast of the Western Sahara, but not on the A337 from Lymington to Brockenhurst. What’s going on here?

All is well on board, we are hanging in there with Halvard and Miranda and are very pleased with progress. It does appear that we are losing miles by the day but we are very happy with our performance as we know that the lighter air running conditions may be a weak point for this boat.

We are very much looking forward to getting into ‘our’ conditions. So don’t worry, we are taking these few losses philosophically and on the chin and just making sure we stay in touch enough to pounce when the time is right. Right now we are very much in touch and managing our position so that we do not get dropped off by the crafty Frenchman ahead of us.

We are working really hard but now also getting the chance to get in some rest in these mild conditions. Quite a few sail and mode changes and constant monitoring of performance percentages to make sure we are getting everything we can out of the yacht, and we have got gybing 2-handed down to a fine art. Life has boiled down to a very regular routine, position reports every 3 hours that we critique and make adjustments to our own plan, eat every 6 hours, sleep for 2 hour stints a few time a day, and thats about it. Pure simplicity.

We also discovered a bag of sweets in our food bags- Thanks Jan! Makes a nice treat after a meal, however the suspicions and accusations are being barely concealed below the surface – who ate all the yellow ones? How many have you had? And the statement has been made 'I’m in charge of food so I’ll distribute these….'

After the last few days of a fair amount of traffic – mainly local fishing, including one asking for cigarettes, nothing today bar our uncommanded ship.

Daily high: Fish Pie for lunch, could easily be passed off as a non-freeze dried meal…Lows: not spending Sunday with Tracy and Fraser.

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