Hunted like prey but still first through the gate

SAILING/Week Three Diary: Justin Slattery, on board Irish yacht Green Dragon, says it was a tough, tense but rewarding ride to Brazil

WE'RE JUBILANT right now, as we managed to hold off our rivals and secure maximum points at the scoring gate off Brazil. We rounded the tiny Fernando de Noronha Island at 12.24 GMT on Thursday and earned ourselves four valuable points - but it was a tough, tense ride to get there.

There was much angst as we entered the notorious Doldrums, where fluky conditions mean you can easily find yourself stuck without any wind, watching others sail by. We'd gone into the lead the previous Sunday after following a strategy to stay west.

Thankfully, we emerged from the Doldrums still the front-runner.

But two of the other yachts, Puma and Ericsson 4, were in hot pursuit. Every three hours the position reports showed they were edging closer. It was literally all hands on deck to keep them at bay. Then Telefonica Black came out of the Doldrums much further east, setting them up with a faster angle to the scoring gate.

We were running a four hours on, four hours off watch system, but everyone was on standby to help out at a second's notice. At one point, one of the sail fittings broke.

Luckily we managed to fix it quickly, only dropping boat speed for a few moments. It was a pretty tense time though, as you really got the feeling we were being hunted down.

It was great to get to the gate first. A huge relief to get the points in the bank and brilliant for crew morale.

In the midst of all this pressure, we did find the time for a little light relief as we crossed the equator into the Southern Hemisphere. It's tradition that anyone crossing the equator for the first time has to undergo an initiation ceremony.

That meant our skipper, Ian Walker, Freddie Shanks, Andrew McLean and media man Guo Chuan had to suffer the wrath of King Neptune (aka Neal McDonald), Queen Codfish (aka Tom Braidwood) and their kangaroo-style court.

They were forced to drink a foul concoction and were covered in slops from two days' meals.

Not pleasant for them, but very entertaining for the rest of us.

Since we passed the scoring gate, it's been all stability sailing at tight angles upwind (into the wind), and reaching down the Brazilian coast. Ericsson 4 and Puma have made gains and are slightly ahead, but it's incredible to be almost 4,000 miles into this race and still to be so close. Telefonica Black and Telefonica Blue are also within striking distance.

Ian has had other problems to contend with. While he's scratching his head, poring over position reports, he does like to have a nice cup of tea in his hand. Unfortunately, Kim, who packed all our food before we set off, thought we might like some variety and added a range of herbal and green tea bags to the usual black brew.

Ian was so angry when he discovered he'd made himself a green tea with cranberry juice and a dash of milk that he threw all the exotic tea bags overboard!

The problem with yacht racing is that you can't always go as the crow flies, and the last few days have seen us diverting off course to pick up more wind. Instead of heading straight to Cape Town, most of the fleet has been diving south, which will mean we'll sail an extra thousand or so miles.

That's because there's a low pressure system turning over Brazil and it's likely that the boat which gets the furthest south will hit the wind first and be off.

And it'll be some ride. We're expecting 30 to 45 knots of breeze and full-on downwind sailing. It'll be pretty fast with these boats potentially covering over 500 miles a day.

We may even see records being smashed - it looks like we're in for a wet and wild time.