Good morning Black Betty fans,

It’s currently 0930 ships time and life on board Black Betty is quite good. It was really good at 0730 when I started writing this but the morning’s events have forced me to downgrade the really good to quite good. Fear not, it’s nothing to do with anything going on 'upstairs', but more of a down below issue. It seems that Black Betty's Black Cat, (having left our sail plan alone for quite a number of days) has decided to start interfering below decks now. I had written my blog, so it was all ready to send later on, but then something happened to the email program on the nav computer (I'm certain BBBC was responsible for this) and my blog disappeared, this is basically the Clipper Race Skipper equivalent of a small child dropping their ice cream. After a coffee, and a little bit of a wobbly bottom lip, I've returned to the nav now to attempt to recreate today's meander through another 24 hours aboard the good ship.

Now, where was I? We have had reasonable wind for the overnight, that has kept Black Betty moving in the right direction. With an increase in wind speed, last night for the first time since his stay in hospital, Mr Medium Weight the 3rd took to the sky again. The first hoist of any kite, after repairs is always a bit of a tense moment, will the repairs hold? Is there any damage that we didn't spot? MMW the 3rd went up into the night sky, and the sheet was ground in, the magic moment. He opened up, filled with wind, and started powering us along under a moonlit sky. A quick scan over the kite, and success, the repairs look good, and no holes had escaped the care and attention of the sail repair team.

So what about the racing? Yesterday, I said that I think the 0.1 of mile will really count, and that now looks even more to be the case. Waiting for each sched to come in has been somewhat stressful, small gains and losses at this stage in the game has the potential to have an effect on the finish positions of this race. Our old sparring partner from a week or so ago, Qingdao, have rejoined us, at the last sched 17 miles to windward. After Chris and his team opted to switch from an offshore route, to an inshore route, and then revert back to offshore it looks like the final miles will see us fighting with them right to the line. As we continue up the race course towards Airlie Beach we have no less than five mandatory gates we must pass through, these are set in order to keep the fleet away from shallow waters and the many off lying islands on this part of the east coast. At present (0015 UTC) we can not see Qingdao, but as these gates vary in width from 10 miles to 3.5 miles, I'm pretty certain we will be able to spot them with MK1 eyeball by sundown.

As Leg 4 draws to a close some of our number will be leaving us in Airlie, and some new crew will be joining. Giando, our Italian muscle departs in Airlie, his drive and enthusiasm on the foredeck has been second-to-none, will such perfectly cooked pasta ever be served up in Black Betty's galley again? Colin, our only Aussie crew member for this leg, makes his way home from Airlie Beach. His light weather helming skills will certainly be missed. Colin is so good at getting Black Betty moving when there is almost no wind, that the rest of his watch have taken to calling him Matrix, as they suspect that behind his dark sunglasses there is a stream of numbers and wind data passing in front of his eyes in a Matrix style. That's their only explanation, personally I suspect that its all to do with Colin's attention to detail and patients!

It also can't go unmentioned the amount of rope work he has done whilst on board, whipping and splicing, all the ends of all our lines are in much better shape than when we left Fremantle, we will be taking a little bit of Colin with us as we continue around the world.

Hank, always keen to grind, no matter how big the grind, here's to hoping we have those enthusiastic grinding shoes filled on the next leg. Having joined the boat in Cape Town, Ian leaves us at the end of this leg, handing on his WTC Logistics baton to his daughter, Iona, who is joining us for Leg 5. Having sailed on Leg 3, Ian already had the hang of big weather down wind helming. He has also been instrumental in keeping all things engineering ship-shape aboard the good ship. Taking over Black Betty in Fremantle, it was great to have someone that I have been able to rely on to show me how the team have been managing the different systems on board. Olly has taken to life at sea well, his pit work will certainly be missed, and I am going to be bold, and say that I doubt we will see a better foredeck face of determination in the remainder of our circumnavigation.

Now, where do I start with our Irish Aussie hybrid crew member Shane, as I look out at the nav station hatch right now, he's on the helm, big sun hat, green sunblock lipstick, and rainbow braces holding his shorts up! Shane has been a great crew member, getting stuck in to all areas, fighting sails down on the foredeck, fight pots and pans with Colin in the galley, on the toughest galley watch of this race. He had purchased a dry suit for this leg, and even when it was warming up, and not dry suit weather, he continued to wear it, much to my amusement, in order to 'get value for money from it', and in the process must have sweated off about 15 kilos. Shane has also threatened to go for the brightly coloured budgie smuggler/rainbow braces combo, but mercifully we have yet to see this outfit materialise.

It's pretty much a drag race to the finish line now, the forecast suggests this gybe will carry us to within 20 or so miles of the line. With only 285.2 miles of the race course left any mistakes are going to be costly, with few miles left to regain any losses. It's imperative now that concentration remains high, and that we don't get distracted by thoughts of cold beers and big steaks.

BLACK BETTY OUT!