OK. I am pretty ticked off right now because I had this entire thing written and we leapt off a wave and one of my fingers hit a key it wasn't supposed to and it is all gone now. So here goes with round #2. Ugggh.

First the weather. Minefields everywhere and there is nothing 'traditional' about this leg so far at all. All the historical routing data? Throw it in the bin. 'You will never sail inside the Canary's'... Been there. 'You will never have to deal with the Cape Verde Islands'. About to be there.

This entire leg has been about testing the west while keeping the pressure that is in the east, keeping the entire fleet far further east than 'traditional'. Making it a bit tougher on Capey (Andrew Cape - navigator), but fortunately for us to date things have gone quite well for Capey. He and I are building pretty decent communication combining weather and strategy which at least appears to be working. His 'experience' (age) is showing to date.

But there are huge issues to contend with prior to hitting the Doldrums, and we are managing expectations on board. I have the speech down pat. 'Boys, you know that little lead that we have worked so hard for over the past week? Well it is about to evaporate in about 10 minutes when we hit the no wind wall of the doldrums'. And as many times as the experienced crew on this boat have dealt with the Doldrums and heard that speech, it doesn't mean they like to hear it.

On board it is funny how tendencies begin to take shape. Salty (Rob Salthouse) and Sid (Sidney Gavignet) are threatening to strike due to unfair labour practice by management. They claim that we gybe about 20 minutes after their watch falls asleep - every time! They have a point, but if they think management is going to change their ways, they are dreaming! Figuratively, not literally.

I'm going to cut my losses now and wrap this up before it gets lost again. Writing while on the graveyard shift has become a bit of a habit. Not sure how long it will last though.

Kenny (Ken Read) - skipper.

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.