Hilary Bowden, on board the yacht Spirit of Hong Kong

Only by 10 nautical miles but that's 10 miles nearer to Boston's pubs than the rest of the teams. LG Flatron is the nearest yacht with TeamSpirit the furthest away - lagging more than 160 miles behind.

We haven't seen any vessels for days. Our only company is the schools of dolphins which regularly play and jump in arcs alongside the boat. A whale even swam alongside this morning to check out what we are doing.

We have already started practising the American National anthem in time for our arrival in the States.

Lying spread-eagled on the deck like drunken penguins, we've been trying to remember a different line each. Luckily only the seabirds could hear us and they didn't hang around for long.

Cold sea breezes

Crew member David Pinkney on deck in his sleeping bag

The air seems to be getting colder on night watch, as winds from Greenland and Iceland start to sweep in. I wear so many clothes I can barely bend my arms. Two pairs of thermal underwear, fleecy salopettes and jacket, oilskins on top and a hat and gloves. On top of that lot is a safety harness.

When I have to go up to the foredeck for a safety check I waddle. I think the safety check should be called a different name because it feels kind of precarious in the pitch dark, with the deck bouncing up and down and the odd wave catching you smack in the face.

The rest of the crew is much more experienced at sailing than I am but they have been great at passing on their knowledge. Steve the skipper and Bjorn, my Norwegian watch leader fire questions occasionally to check it's sinking in. "What point of sail are we on? Name the different shrouds? List the different parts of a sail. What does that cloud formation mean?"

Bad hair days

I am sleeping like an angel. A combination of sea air and physical work means I fall asleep before my head hits the pillow. Even Mike my bunkmate's orchestral snores fail to wake me.

Spirits remain high. I definitely got lucky with my crew, who make sailing a lot of fun. They have already set up a casino in the sail locker, and are planning a game of hide the medic with our petite doctor Ingrid Kane, 27, who comes from Chichester. They have christened me parrot head due to my bad hair mornings.

Stephen Wilkins, 37, our Australian skipper said: "The first week has gone really well. We were first over the starting line and have been maintaining our place at the front.

"There is still a long, long way to go and we are definitely not complacent because things can change quickly in ocean racing. But we have a few tactics up our sleeves.

"The crew is competitive but they are also having a lot of fun. We had to change boats about six weeks before the start of the race so they were under a lot of stress and people were wondering how they would rise to the challenge. I think this week they got the answer."

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BBC News Online's Hilary Bowden is filing regular reports on the first leg of the BT Global Challenge from the yacht Spirit of Hong Kong.