Latest news from Hugo Boss II

• NEWS
• 28 Dec, 2007 10:57:00 AM

Latest news from Hugo Boss II

The reality of our food situation at the moment is what is on the freeze dried menu tomorrow (it’s not that bad as long as you don't look at it, and don’t mind a cooked breakfast tasting the same as beef stew).

Hugo Boss II - 9:27am, 28 December

Last night (Thursday) was full of frustrations. We sailed into the ridge of high pressure and no wind, which was always on the cards for the fleet. With little breeze and a residual headsea progress has been painful. The sea has abated now, allowing us to keep a whisper of breeze in the sails. The second frustration was the discovery that it was freeze dried chilli con carne for dinner, which is pretty far down the rankings of decent freeze dried food...tied with beef and pasta hotpot. The third was seeing, what we believe to be George Gregan Foundation, cross in front of us in the early hours of the morning, and we see from the scheds that DHL – The Daily Telegraph have overtaken us now too.

With only a J2 in our armoury for light upwind sailing we just can’t compete with the Code 0's [bigger sails] carried by the other two boats. Having worked hard to gain the lead within the Volvo 60 class, it was a painful pill to swallow. We saw about 2-4 knots for the whole of the light period.

This morning (Friday) we are averaging about 10 knots. All we can do is exactly what we are doing - working the boat as best we can with the tools we have. There are the first indications that the pressure is building, so the wind dance continues. Keep pressing south is the aim of the game. Once in the breeze we believe that we can re-gain the miles.....and hopefully the lead.

We appear to be closer to the corner of Tasmania than the others, so if the wind shifts round a little, then this should favour us and we hope to make up some miles there. We may well all come into Hobart together – a close match race would be very exciting.

All is well on board. Nathan’s [Buckley] confidence in his abilities, knowledge and understanding is growing all the time. He really will have experienced a wide range of different sailing conditions by the time we reach Hobart. Conversation has turned to the first meal ashore, and thoughts of the first pint of beer. The reality of our food situation at the moment is what is on the freeze dried menu tomorrow (it’s not that bad as long as you don't look at it, and don’t mind a cooked breakfast tasting the same as beef stew) and whether to have tank water or gatorade in your water bottle.

Until next time. Think windy thoughts for us.

Andy Dovell