I have been told that "Oceans Dream" is to be launched on Friday 28 November. Hopefully the Admiral factory will keep to the date as all reports from the factory indicate that the builders are working full steam ahead to make the splash happen by the given date.

It looks like we will be able to leave around the 10th of December which means we will be spending Christmas on the island of St Helena.

At the moment all the Volvo Ocean Race boats are in Cape Town with Leg 2 due to start this Saturday at 13:00 local time (UTC +2 hours). I have been asked to skipper one of the support boats for the Telefonica Team. Adrian and Jackie are back from their trip up the west coast of South Africa and I have invited them to go along for the ride - hey, I need crew to help throw lines!

Talking about Adrian and Jackie, click on their blog link on the right of this page (under "Favorites") and read about their land-based trip.

More updates as they come in next week.