Normal is an odd word when used in conjunction with the Volvo Ocean Race. There isn't much 'normal' about the sailors that compete in this race. There isn't anything 'normal' about the mad turbocharged boats that we are sailing. But on this day, day six, the word that comes to mind most readily is 'normality'. It is starting to feel 'normal' to crawl aft, down on my hands and knees in a thin swirl of water, through the watertight bulkhead and leaver myself into the media station.

It's 'normal' to grip my computer mouse with one hand and hang on with the other like I was standing on a crowded London Tube bumping to abrupt stop jolting from side to side. It's 'normal' to move around the boat stepping over someone or something. Shaking off sleeping people, equipment, food and sails in full swing. The lads are pretty efficient at it now. Whole ingenious systems have been invented to leaver, ratchet and swing the tonnes of stuff that can legally be moved from side to side, forward and back to trim the boat to optimum speed. So in the strangest environments a feeling of familiarity can be reached.

One thing that I haven't come to terms with yet is not being able to contribute to the sailing of this sailing boat. I just find myself getting more involved in my MCM duties and daily tasks of filming, interviews, photography, cooking, writing, bailing, crew medical survey, tagging, editing film and stills, extracting the footage off the boat and my very favourite job of all, the biological water collection test survey. Just a normal day.

Life for the crew is of course very different. I can sum up their world as focused routine with moments of concentrated intensity. Earlier this year when we sailed round Britain and Ireland for our Volvo Ocean Race qualifier the crew pushed hard to get the record but also relaxed enough to look around and chat with a healthy dose of on-the-rail humour and banter. This time, on this first leg the mood is quite different. After the trials of the first few days the crew have shut down to a race mode I've never experienced before.

In my sailing world of short intense AC or Olympic round the cans day sprint racing, if you have a bad day you get on you bike and cycle up a hill, shout at the wind and go out the next day with a new start and a fresh head. On the Volvo you can't press the restart button so readily. The approach playing out before me is one of dogged hard-headed cold emotion, push harder, up the effort minimise the grey areas. Maximise rest, sleep then awake, off watch, power up then attention. Up and into it like a soldier at night, sleeping with a gun by his side, sailing boots and harness hooked onto the bunk, ready to fire.

Yes I can crack a joke and raise a smile but soon the crew snaps back into the zone. It's a zone that I can't participate in, but only respect and give them space. It's my job now to slowly break through the hard-headed round-the- world mind and start to see and report on life and the race through their eyes and use their words. Helmet on, visor down, wish me luck, cover me, I'm going in.

More from me soon.

A big man reporting from a small space in a huge sea!
Mark Covell - MCM

Interesting how far away land life is. We hear about a bank crisis (what bank crisis) somewhere on dry land, couldn't be more unimportant out here in the country of the flying fish. Kosatka has entered Utopia (Thomas Morus famous old book) where money doesn't rule. You could be rich as hell, still you couldn't buy a wind shift here, no new sail if you ripped one, nor could you leave even if you put cash on the table here in Waterworld. Two more weeks living the illusion until reality will catch up with us again.

Since today we see marine life, we already started wondering where the flying fish, the birds the dolphins and whales were. The flying fish seem to be surprised by the speeds we are doing. While they could easily escape a VO60, they struggle with the bigger sister we are pushing through every wave trying to slow us down.

Thanks Lizzie for you email today, I remember us discussing during the 01-02 race that it couldn't be so hard to send stuff from the boats in time. It is b_..y hard, believe me, we were so wrong back then in Whiteley's Race HQ. Life at the extreme has a different rhythm on the boat and in the office. Out here you get up and you have to race a boat, then eat, sleep and race a boat again. Still, understanding your struggle, I promise we ll be good boys and make you happy, at least we ll ty.

Best regards from west of Nouadhibou.

Andreas Hanakamp - skipper.

(Note: Andreas Hanakamp worked as Press Officer at Race HQ during the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-02)

Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for all the latest news!

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.