Trade sailing is warm sunny and very wet on the whole, I could almost advise any budding Volvo sailor who doesn’t like the cold to just take one of these boats into the trades to just go for a burn.  It is very pleasant and extreme if compared with the normal sailing world, but relatively safe and tame in Volvo 70 terms.  It is a great way to get hooked on the class!

The last couple of days have seen more than just competition on the sailing front.  The other evening the duty officer delivered a message to my brother and me from Green Dragon’s very own Ians (Walker and Moore).  It was challenge to see how many questions we could answer correctly on a pop quiz they had in their possession.

Now this was exactly what the doctor had ordered - a challenge, which was removed from the relentless obstacles thrown our way during a leg. 

It was 100 questions of cryptic clues of various bands names. We had been told in our email from the two Ians that they had already 70 answers, so we had our work cut out. 

It was a taxing couple of hours and we started to tick off plenty of band names - some obvious and one technique that worked relatively well was to think of a band from the 80s and then match the clue up to the band name. Some, however, definitely needed a little left field thought.

Luckily Jules (Jules Salter) was an avid pop follower in the ‘80s. Stu Bannatyne and a few of the lads joined in, but unfortunately the quiz was heavily favoured towards us Poms.  After a bit of sleep and some distant thought we have managed to get 98 of the answers and are still troubled by the last couple.

Ian W came through and admitted that we may have won round one, but he was sending round two very soon - which we have just received.  Fifty questions on English football teams in cryptic form. Along with the questions came a little note from Ian Walker saying that he was definitely within his comfort zone with this topic and also a quick dig from him about the state of Southampton FC (Jules and my beloved team).

The beauty of the football questions is that, as Southampton have made  their dramatic decent through the English football leagues, I have followed them to some far off and distant football grounds throughout  the UK - so hope that a few of the more obscure teams will be in the answers. Will have to see how we get on.

Today saw yet another birthday onboard - this time was the turn of Stu.  He had a small package from his family onboard which contained some sweets and some lovely homemade cards from his kids. The sweets are going down very nicely and thoughts are to carry more lollies onboard for the latter legs.

So all good on Ericsson 4 - and if any of you are thinking of  investing in a football team may I suggest Southampton FC - they will  be a bargain and could easily be a champions league finalist in four years time - honest!

Guy Salter - MCM