PUMA EMAIL: 'These are hard yards for me aboard Il Mostro'

Friday 21 November 2008 10:38 GMT

PUMA - Rick Deppe (Media Crew Member)

Well here we are... It’s cold, bumpy, I’m miserable and the boat feels as though it is falling apart around me, although of course it is not, it’s the Volvo. What did I expect? These are hard yards for me aboard Il Mostro. Ugh. How I wish I could go back and do Cape Town again. Two weeks - less in fact - is not enough time to enjoy such a brilliant city and country, I can definitely say that I didn't take advantage of all that it has to offer - apologies to those who were there to support me.

Enough whining: leg two, let’s kick some ass as they say, although I say that with full realisation that success or failure in the race is out of my hands - my job and the other 7 media crew members of each boat is to record the action as it happens win or lose.

During the stay in Cape Town, we had chance to check out all of the collective media that has been created by all the teams including the landlubbers. I thought the TV shows were great and am blown away by all the great images, video and writing that is coming off the boats, congratulations to Guy Salter on Ericsson 4 for a well deserved win in the leg one media competition...... excuse me, I think I'm going to throw up.... and to Sander Pluijm on Delta Lloyd for his nomination for the same prize, it’s going to be a tough competition to the finish..

Talking about tough... the leg so far has been just that , conditions have not let up since we started and that’s a good thing so far as the race and our speedy arrival in Cochin are concerned. Its also been tough with all the repairs going on aboard the yacht Casey Smith (AUS), who is the boat captain of Il Mostro, has done a brilliant job of keeping us in the race, and his efforts and skill means that we will probably make it to India, maybe even win... we will probably all die of some horrible lung condition though... the boat was full of carbon dust for a while. All in a day’s work for this crew... The sailing conditions have been very tough and the crew has currently turned into what I lovingly call ‘sailing robots’... Sail-Sleep-Eat... repeat.

I'm writing this blog whilst I upload some video that we shot on the boat regarding the spate of pirate attacks that seem to be occurring more and more in the hot zone off the East Africa coast that we seem hell bent on getting to as quick as possible .... Wonder if we'll be raided and held for ransom... wish Jerry (Jerry Kirby/USA) was here.. Then again, maybe not.

Received 10:38