Good morning Black Betty Fans.

There is something strange going on out here in the South China Sea west of Luzon Island, we have wind! Since Race Start, we have had some reasonable breeze, that has built and veered overnight. J By sunrise the breeze had shifted enough to hoist a Kite, so down it came and up went Mr Medium Weight the Third and down came Yankee 1 and up with the Staysail. We have had great conditions to welcome the new crew to Black Betty, at present it's a perfect classroom for the helm.

In Subic Bay Mk2 we have had eight crew join us, seven of which have completed a previous leg on board. Even for the returning leggers it’s a bit like stepping on to a new boat, as everyone who has completed a previous leg had done one of the early legs, prior to Fremantle. The guys and girls coming back have got a few changes to adjust to as a few things have changed since early on in the race. As the next few days go on they will get introductions, for now it seems everyone is settling in well.

We have about 50 miles to go until the end of the first leg (and first Dell Latitude Rugged Ocean Sprint) of this triangular race. We have entered into the second and third ocean sprints, with the theory being that it gave us the first leg of the race for the new crew to have a bit of settling in time, before we start racing against the clock as well as the rest of the fleet. We have done reasonably well over the last 18 hours since yesterday evening’s Le Mans start in the dark, we currently find ourselves somewhere in the front half of the pack, we just need to maintain and improve our position in the next 562 miles, a lot easier said than done as all teams are pushing hard.

I Guess the Race Viewer is pretty exciting and addictive viewing right now!

Black Betty OUT!