So it has been nearly a week since my last update….and what a week it has been.

Last Wednesday I got out of my chair in the office and as I was doing so I  twisted my body slightly. My body obviously wasn’t expecting this slight of movement and my back went into spasm. As a result I could hardly move for the remainder of last week although it did start to settle down over the weekend. Thank goodness for Voltarol 12 hour pain relief gel and ‘the joy of movement’. Now I’m really confused by this. 3 months on a boat, hauling sails up and down, and all the physical aspects of a sailing yacht……no problem. Get home to work. Get out of chair. Back in agony. How on earth does that work? Bizarre!

On a completely different note England Rugby had a great result on Sunday. Is this an omen for PSP? (there’s no link here…but it would be great to thinK PSP could do as well on this Leg and so far it’s all looking very good).

After a to and fro with Sanya it was great to see PSP leading after successfully negotiating the Doldrums Corridor. Now with a free reign to settle their course direction towards China it will be interesting to see if Matt determines to go it alone again. As I write the boat is on a heading of 4 degrees; so very nearly heading due north. Santa are heading 24 degrees further west and more therefore closer to the rhumb line and Seattle are heading even further west on a course of 328 degrees, 36 degrees further west than PSP. It looks as though its all about chasing the weather again as there is a low pressure system forming to the north of the fleet and my guess is that Matt will try and stay away from the eye of this where the winds will be lightest or even non-existent and he’ll be looking to get a push if he can from the stronger winds at the edge of the system. We’ll know soon enough if this works out.

With life on lean again the crew will be finding things hard work and Matt openly admitted yesterday how hard it is to do anything when the boat is heeled over in strong winds. I was explaining this to my Mum. If the boat is fairly flat it only takes a few seconds to move from one side of the galley to the other. However, when the boat is heeled over then the first thing I’d have to do is psych myself up if I wanted to undertake a move to the other side. There is a rope from one side of the galley to the other and I’d literally have to haul myself ‘uphill’ to get to the other side. It’s all very wearing and you really do have to make a positive decision to make such a small journey. Getting around our kitchen at home is a positive joy in comparison and especially as the fridge is stocked with wine and the cupboards have lots of other treats in them. Can somebody remind me why I’m going back for Leg 8????

Frustratingly I see that PSP are without communications again for the rest of this Leg. I had terrible problems with my emails on Leg 3 and I felt even more alone on the ocean when I couldn’t be in contact with Andie. Fortunately Daren came up trumps and allowed me to use his email allowance to stay in touch with home. What a star!

It’s those little things that can make such a difference to morale on the boat. We take the ability to be in touch with loved ones as a given on land and out in the wide expanse of the ocean this simple pleasure of being able to keep in touch with home can make all the difference when you feel so far away and alone in the world. I know the guys and gals on board will be feeling a bit down with this but I also know they’ll be able to dig deep and because they are all in the same boat, so as to speak, they’ll find a way to rise above this.

Sending positive thoughts from the comfort of my comfy chair with a gin and tonic in hand. Cheers!