© Max Bulger

View from the towline: Mussaneh to Muscat.

It was a long day in the sun, but we’ve officially made the transfer south to Muscat. We left our temporary home in at the Marina Bandar Al Rowdha in Mussanah at 8:30 (after a slightly frustrating wait for the fuel dock to open) and towed all 80 feet of Oman Air’s hulls three hours south to the regatta site. Charlie and I rode on the trampoline while Morgan and Joe drove the RIB, and Will coordinated the shoreside logistics of moving our containers with help from shore crew Tim, Halal, and Mohammed. Nasser, our bowman who lives in Muscat, met us at the venue.

© Andres Soriano/Team Sanya/Volvo Ocean Race

Team Sanya, skippered by Mike Sanderson from New Zealand during Leg 4.

Ryan O'Grady, a veteran follower of the Volvo Ocean Race and a top amateur sailor, is providing regular insight and analysis on the 2011-'12 Volvo Ocean Race for SailingWorld.com.

What would you rather do? Race or do race committee? Well, the answer is pretty easy. We go to the trouble of buying boats, maintaining them, practicing with them, and spending down marital credits to disappear for a day—the price varies according to season, mood, and the behavior of children—because we want to sail and compete against other sailors.
 
So lots of sailors moan about, bitch about, and even actively shirk their race committee duty, even though it's glaringly obvious that if there is no race committee, there is no racing.
 

© Michael Lovett

On Saturday, I sanded the hard-to-reach places. Notice how I missed the aft surface of the starboard bench support?

This weekend I jumped off a cliff. Figuratively speaking, of course. Over the holidays, my father and I applied the first coat of varnish to the Sled, the wooden Thistle we've been working on for the past few months. (This isn't a several-months-long project, but that's what it becomes when work takes place sporadically on the weekends.