Camper's Hamish Hooper provides an inside look at life in the Volvo

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand sails during the Volvo Ocean Race. Photo / Supplied

It's been a slow, wet, shifty and frustrating day onboard Camper today, not too dissimilar to the past few days as we continue to try to break free from the clutches of this trough which won't let us go.

It's been slow but the guys still work equally as hard as they do when the breeze is up. The one calming factor is we know all the fleet is caught up in it as well, but the anxiety lies in really needing to be the first to break out and get into some good northerly breezes.

As the days have been slow there has been a promising trade market beginning to emerge onboard Camper. The currency is varying snacks which stocks are refreshed daily at about 5am by myself.

The daily food rations are: 1 x breakfast porridge or muesli at 2-4am, 1 x freeze-dry lunch from 10am-12pm, 1 x freeze-dry dinner from 6pm-8pm.

Outside of this we are assigned a few snacks and this is where the trading market starts. Some like some snacks others don't want other snacks, so there are little movements to trade with each other for things they want more of.

There are nuts, muesli bars, protein bars, dried fruit, chocolate bars and, the most valuable item, biltong. It's simple supply and demand - most people like the biltong so don't want to trade, a few people do want to trade so supply is short but demand is high.

It was suggested today that biltong is one of the best things to come out of South Africa, someone thought this was rather narrow-minded and suggested the best thing out of South Africa was Charlize Theron.

Over the past couple of days we have had a number of sooty albatross graciously following the boat for hours on end. At one stage I counted close to 20 of them majestically soaring through the waves.

After such a pleasant time in the airy rain and low cloud I came below and immediately was struck by the stench of what reminded me of a stink wet dog. Its only day five and it's not even hot yet. This doesn't bode well for the remainder of the leg.

Most of the guys are beginning to get excited about Christmas. I haven't yet noticed if there is a Christmas Grinch on board yet.

But all Animal (co-navigator Andrew McLean) wants for Christmas is Burgerfuel. He won't be getting it on Christmas day but he knows of the store in Dubai, which is his simple focus when we eventually reach the United Arab Emirates.