This week's quotes from Volvo Race crew

Grant Dalton, Amer Sports One: "Brother, is it wet. It would be impossible for the boat to be any wetter. We bail it (literally) every two hours maximum and the water just pours over the deck. This is not your average heavy spray, more walls of white water, which eventually penetrate through everything, and through all of this the boat continues to thunder along, now under small spinnaker in a confused sea."

Arve Roaas, djuice: "Several boats reported icebergs yesterday, and as we spotted one, we realized our radar was not working, which is bad news for night sailing in this part of the world. So last night I spent several hours on the rail with our night-scope, looking for icebergs — not very easy — very cold."

Amer Sports Too: "… how cold is it on deck, my hands and toes hardly exist anymore …"

Ross Field, Team News Corp: "An interesting thing, which I am sure everyone has noted — when it's cold you wee a lot more — it's like this down south here, where it's freezing. So everyone really monitors what they drink, because it's a major to go to the toilet to get all the gear off, etc."

Mark Rudiger, Assa Abloy: "You can't tell who is who on board, because all you see are wide eyes peering out of identical foulies. Cold water everywhere."

These quotes originally appeared on Scuttlebutt, a free racing newsletter. Used by permission. To subscribe, go to www.boats.com. Follow progress of the Volvo Ocean Race online at www.volvooceanrace.org. The vessels departed on Leg Two for Sydney on Nov. 12.

By Ocean Navigator