JAMAICA 9th after 24 hours

At 06:00 today JAMAICA had raced into a commanding 9th place, fully 1 mile ahead of 10th placed Nova Scotia (and counting) and just 6 miles off the lead boats.

There really is nothing in it at the moment. The boats exited the Olympic Marina at Qingdao yesterday at a snail's pace in becalmed waters and sub zero temperatures. The relatively slow progress has been confirmed by this morning's postings when only one boat achieved a distance over 12 hours of 20 miles - the rest were in their teens.

With each of the clippers travelling at just over 1 mile in each and every hour, it must be very frustrating out there and with still more than 4,380 miles to go to the finish line in Hawaii, Christmas 2008 somewhere in mid Pacific could be a possibility. Can Santa deliver his presents mid Ocean ? (of course) where will Simon stick his Christmas tree ? (former crew members need not offer any comments) will Harry be able to pull a cracker ? (that'll be a first)

With that borne in mind, may we be the first to wish all our readers a Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2009 ?