Why does it always rain on me?

DAY 8 - 2nd December 2007

Position: 21º 28' N 36º 49' W
Bearing: 250º
Distance to go: 1446 Nm

The dreaded 02.00 - 06.00 watch passed relatively quickly although we're running out of games. Helming the boat at night is like driving a car on an empty motorway without lights on. You know you have the room but sometimes you scare yourself when a swell catches you and the speed picks up. No record speeds tonight though.

After a brief sleep we joined the other watch on deck and shared some small qualls. This mixture of light rain, unsettled wind and sun continued until we were back on watch at 12 noon. For once our watch started quietly until Dave said the magic words "this is boring, I want some action." Cue the biggest squall yet. As all other spare crew fled down the companionway we put 2 reefs in the main and rolled away some headsail. The rain came hard and horizontal flattening both us and the sea. I managed to get some footage until the rain was threatening to soak my "waterproof" camera cover. And as soon as it had arrived it waved goodbye leaving some very wet B watch. We had heard all about the squalls and what we could expect and this was a textbook example. Dave is now banned form uttering those words again.

Susie gave us some sympathy with a fantastic morrocan lamb stew rustled up without fuss as we were rushing about on deck. How does she do it?

The squall had set the mood for Mark and the news getting worse. Leeds lost and were down to 5th. We need to keep an eye out for him on night watch as we don't want him to do anything silly. Encouraging words are in order, at least he doesn't support West Ham (Darren!).


You can track the progress of Northern Child, which is updated every hour, on their web site at: northernchild.com