Extreme blogging

If your laptop was in a noisy, vibrating sauna – would you blog? Probably not. And if it took you 45 minutes to upload a minute of video, would you bother? No, probably not. And what if, while blogging, all you could eat was flavourless, grainy rehydrated slop – would you keep writing? No, me either. But I know some guys who do.

Currently making their way down Africa’s west coast are the eight crews in the Volvo Ocean Race, all blogging furiously from inside the carbon fibre hulls of their boats. At times, these boats hit speeds of around 70kmh, and each boat has one dedicated crew member whose sole responsibility is to send back pics and video, all fully edited from on an on-board suite of laptops, to race HQ.

But that doesn’t stop the others getting in on the action. The navigators (like Mr Nilson, pictured) are sat down below, right down the cramped stern of the boat, trying to pick their way through weather patterns on their computers. They are chained to their desks at the moment as the boats navigate the doldrums. One such navvy is Matt Gregory, navigator on the Irish/Dutch entry Delta Lloyd, writing on his aptly-named blog, Volvo Hotseat.

From yesterday:

The hotseat is HOT today and don’t mean metaphorically. I am sitting in a sauna. It is well over 100 degrees down below. My only option for cooling myself is pointing the small fan at my nav desk directly at my head while drinking water with sports drink powder added. The water is desalinated from the sea, which is hot as well. Neither seems to be of very much help.

That’s some dedicated blogging, there Mr Gregory.

Also worth checking out – the site of the Irish/Chinese Green Dragon (currently in the lead), with team blog and lots of other goodies. And, of course, my piece on the Green Dragon for the Sunday Business Post.