SAILING/Barcelona World Race Co-Skipper's log:More than 40 days at sea and we're blasting along nicely now. There's a palpable air of excitement on board Paprec-Virbac as JP (co-skipper) Jean Pierre Dick) and I look forward to seeing civilisation for the first time in almost three weeks. Not that we'll be stopping; we have the overall lead to protect and this race is ours to lose.
Alex Thompson and Andrew Cape on Hugo Boss are keeping us under constant pressure 100 miles astern as we close on the Cook Strait between New Zealand's North and South Islands.
We're in a marginally better position since my last report a week ago when the big black boat was charging up the Southern Ocean, taking more than 100 miles out of our hard-earned lead in just one night.
During normal daylight hours (under GMT) we receive two-hourly updates of our performance. By night, however, a 12-hour blackout is applied and this was a fearful time for us as Hugo Boss finally threw down their potent challenge.
In the end, they came within 12 miles of our lead before the weather front that brought them up reached us as well and we could fire up the after-burners and extend once again.
But our 100-mile lead is tenuous at best, especially as there could easily be a light-wind zone to the west of New Zealand and they may be slightly better positioned to the northwest to take advantage of this. Currently, we expect to pass through the Strait tomorrow, hopefully with a two- to six-hour lead on Alex and Capey.
Right now we have 25 to 30 knots of breeze, full mainsail and fairly flat seas with around one-metre waves. In fact, we haven't really seen anything too big so far, perhaps up to 15 metres but no more.
We have a private match-race duel up front as the remaining boats in the race are 1,500 miles and more behind us. And we could yet lose another competitor if Dominique Wavre and Michelle Paret on Tenemos II cannot repair the structural damage to their keel when they pull in to Wellington next weekend.
Meanwhile, our December food bag has been depleted of tasty treats as we've hit the nice stuff in the hard conditions of the last few weeks. But I'm reliably informed my Christmas present has some surprises and I'm resisting temptation to start unwrapping early. Being at sea for Christmas isn't new to me and I've forgotten my birthday plenty of times on one deep-ocean race or another.
But this year is different as I'll be missing Oisín's first Christmas and I would very much like to be there with him and Suzy-Ann. They're having a white Christmas in Canada and Santa is bringing him a sled so there'll be plenty of photos coming by email this week.
We're past this halfway mark and just one more foray into the Southern Ocean to the notorious Cape Horn before finally turning northwards in the Atlantic once again. In the meantime, it's back-watching time again as we watch to see if a black hull emerges for another duel.
Best wishes to all for a happy and peaceful Christmas, from all on board Paprec-Virbac.
In conversation with David Branigan
