received 19.12.08 1430 GMT
We are tacking to the waypoint that is the scoring gate for leg 3. It has taken a while to get here, and has taken its toll on the fleet. My media desk sounds like a box of Lego every time we go over a wave, but its still working so I won’t open it up - just in case it acts like a 'jack in the box' when I get the lid off. As they say in deepest Gurnard – ‘if it ain’t broke don't mess with it’.
The Malacca Straits are the next task, and, from experience, it could be quite a tricky and time-consuming passage. I have been up and down many times and have never known of much wind. The only wind is generated by the often-huge thunderstorms, which brew up during the day on both the Indonesian and Malaysian side.
These clouds can offer some of the most spectacular forked lightening displays I have ever seen - in fact so good that the lights and TV in my hotel rooms have often remained off until the natural light show is over.
There are many islands and great old trading ports on the way down, which I have visited during several regattas and are places I would like to visit again. But the only thing on the minds of Ericsson 4 now is about getting to Singapore ASAP while avoiding the fishermen, their nets, the vast amounts of commercial shipping, the large amount of litter in the water, which ranges from a plastic cup to the odd tree log, the tides, the sandbanks, the storm clouds and associated lightening, the pirates, the sea snakes and the areas of no wind - so not much to worry about!
We did get the lowdown from experience of this area but things change so quickly down here that we couldn’t get the definitive answer to life, the universe and everything, or even the quickest route through the Straits, but we did get many handy tips though.
Other than that, it’s all good on Ericsson 4 and our eyes are wide open
Guy Salter - MCM
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