Emirates Team NZ- The Camper onboard Food Exchange trading rules

by Hamish Hooper on 17 Dec 2011
Camper's Media Man, Hamish Hooper reports in on Day 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race from the Indian Ocean, east of South Africa.

Latest position report: Camper and Puma are first equal, Sanya 2.2nm adrift, Abu Dhabi 5.0, Telefonica 9.5, Groupama 83.7.

It’s been a slow wet, shifty and frustrating day onboard Camper today, not to dissimilar to the past few days as we continue to try to break free from the clutches of this trough which won’t let us go…

It’s been slow but the guys still work equally as hard as they do when the breeze is up.

The one calming factor is we know all the fleet is caught up in it as well, but the anxiety lies in really needing to be the first to break out and get into some good northerly breezes.

As the days have been slow there has been a promising trade market beginning to emerge onboard Camper. The currency is varying snacks which stocks are refreshed daily at about 5am by myself.

The daily food rations are:

- 1 x breakfast porridge or muesli at 2-4am

- 1 x Freeze dry lunch from 10am- 12pm

- 1 x Freeze dry dinner from 6pm- 8pm

Outside of this we are assigned a few snacks and this is where the trading market starts. Some like some snacks others don’t want other snacks, so there are little movements to trade with each other for things they want more of.

There are nuts, muesli bars, protein bars, dried fruit, chocolate bars and the most valuable item- Biltong.

It’s simple supply and demand, most people like the biltong so don’t want to trade, a few people do want to trade so supply is short, but demand is high as most people want all of the biltong they can get.

It was suggested today that biltong is one of the best things to come out of South Africa, someone thought this was rather narrow minded and suggested the best thing out of South Africa was Charlize Theron, Mike suggested it was him…

Just kidding I added that bit in.

Over the past couple of days we have had a number of Sooty Albatross graciously following the boat for hours on end. At one stage I counted close to 20 of them majestically soaring through the waves.

You could watch them for hours.

Mike Pammenter of Day 4 of Leg 2 by Emirates Team NZ

After such a pleasant time in the airy rain and low cloud I came below and immediately was struck by the stench of what reminded me of a stink wet dog.

Its only day 5 and it’s not even hot yet. This doesn’t bode well for the remainder of the leg.

Most of the guys are beginning to get excited about Christmas. I haven’t yet noticed if there is a Christmas Grinch on board yet.

But all Animal wants for Christmas is Burgerfuel.

He won’t be getting it on Christmas day but he knows of the store in Dubai which is his simple focus when we eventually reach the UAE