Hurtling downwind in thick fog in the Southern Ocean and a close encounter with unexpected icebergs in the middle of the night provided more than enough excitement for one week -- and a sharp reminder of how vulnerable we are down south, even at 50 degrees.

We passed two monster bergs to windward and one to leeward and, although it was dark, we estimated them at 100 metres across. The water temperature was still 11C at the time so we really weren't expecting to see any bergs that far north. We also saw quite a few after that but it was daylight by then so we felt more in control.

We're now on day 30 of this fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, on the offshore approaches to Cape Horn and currently enjoying some fabulous downwind sailing in 28-40 knots.

We had to make a bit of a diversion this week but fortunately we seem to have come out of the situation fairly favourably. Having passed through the ice gates it became pretty clear that the fleet were all going to have to deal with the predicted tropical low that was forming off the Chilean coast. It wasn't so much a matter of avoiding it but a case of positioning ourselves on the right side of it.

Basically, the entire fleet turned left and Ericsson 3 -- furthest to the south -- had to sail due north to get round the back of this low to avoid headwinds. The wind reached about 45 knots at its peak and we're now chasing it towards Cape Horn.

The scenario worked very well for us because we didn't have to make too big a diversion and we're a lot closer to the leaders than we were. We expect to reach the scoring gate at the cape today although Ericsson 3 and stablemate Ericsson 4 are already sailing towards the Falkland Islands.

As I sit down below, off watch, we're continuing to sail fast in fairly uncomfortable cross-sea conditions and I'm reminded of this time five years ago. Almost exactly five years to the day, on St Patrick's Day, myself and our bowman Justin Slattery were rounding Cape Horn on Steve Fossett's yacht, Cheyenne, on our round-the-world record-breaking voyage.

It was a slightly bizarre scenario but yesterday we were able to break open a couple of cans of Guinness to celebrate and to take time to remember the late Steve Fossett. We've also had another birthday onboard this week -- Tommy Braidwood. He says he's 27 but I think it's more like 37! Needless to say, it was another excuse for a bit of a celebration.

As far as tactics go this week, it's been fairly straightforward with downwind reaching all the way to the Horn. We are picking up more pressure in the new frontal system as we get nearer, so an exciting rounding is in store.

The waves round the Horn are usually quite long-faced so hopefully the sea state will improve.

What we need to do now is maintain reasonable speed without damaging the boat. The boat is fine, no problems -- touch wood -- and everyone's fine and in good spirits.

On a long leg like this there's always a period of thinking, "feck, this is long -- will it ever end?" You're constantly crossing off the days. But then you get over the 'hump' and go for a period of about a month where you stop counting and just get on with it. It's not until you are on the final stretch of the leg that you start counting the days, hours and minutes to the finish again.

I think most of the crew have now cleared the hump and are maintaining their watch-to-watch schedule and day-to-day existence towards Rio.

Our watch system, the rolling system, is fairly popular with the other teams too. It's straightforward, ensures the crew get enough sleep and, most importantly, it provides smooth transition between the watches and a good transfer of information and communication at the swap-over.

We work in pairs, with a new pair coming on watch every two hours and rotating through. The system works so you have four hours on, four hours off. Every second watch you're on a two-hour standby period for things like sail changes, so one person will have four hours off and the other will have a period of two hours standby as well. At any one time there'll be three people off watch and one on standby and probably one of the navigators too. So you could have up to five people sleeping at any one time.

Skipper Ian Walker and the navigator run their own watch system and that's very much dependent on the conditions, the weather and their workload. They very much live to the rhythm of the boat, whereas everyone else lives to the rhythm of the watches.

In a few days we'll be round the Horn and north of the Falklands, where decisions will be made on whether we go outside or inside the Staten Islands and the Falkland Islands. In the meantime, we're enjoying spectacular sailing and will bring news of our Cape Horn rounding next week.

You can follow our progress on www.greendragonracing.com and www.volvooceanrace.org

- Damian Foxall