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Idea of London - Playmates, and position reports, 26N 31W



Good evening.

I hope this finds you all well. Certainly our US readers will be well fed
at this point. We on the other hand have been well entertained.

After a very slow night, the morning dawned slowly with the sun peeking in
and out of the clouds. Mid morning we found ourselves having a little play
date. We were surfing along down the swell minding our own business when a
whale made an appearance. I came right over to the boat and as we surfed
downt he wave it too was surfing just under the surface, and quite literally
just under our bow. The two crew who just happened to be sitting up on the
bow at the time looked straight down at it's tail as it lead the boat down
the wave. Needless to say there was much shouting and pointing attracting,
naturally, the entire off watch cameras in hand.

The whale stayed with us for a little while pacing the boat. Just off the
starboard bow at times, or just off the port bow. Very often though it was
there in that position just under the bow leading the boat down the waves.
It's quite a sight to see such a massive creature (approx. 30 - 40 feet) so
close to our little boat, and with a creature that big IDEA does start to
feel somewhat fragile and small. Eventually it went off to continue playing
on it's own, but did make another appearance off in the distance before
disappearing for good.

The crew with the most impressive camera has to be Ed who went running up
onto the bow for some very cool photo and video of our playmate. Ed
Hamilton-Hill came to IDEA after running a Massage company servicing Clubs,
Casinos, and shopping malls. Having sold his shares in the company he's now
in Westfeild, London. It's a fairly large shopping mall where he's setting
up a digital art gallery. Ed is one of the more experianced sailers amonst
this motely crew having done a fair bit of big boat sailing previous to
marriage and family. He's come back with his closest friends to get an
ocean crossing with friends to go along with his several past off-shore
ocean races. He's so far taken a great pleasure in learning the middle of
the boat, specifically what we refer to as the "Pit". The area were the
majority of the working lines terminate. The epicenter of manuvers.

And manuvers apleanty we have done, and will continute to do as we work
across this weather system and look for the breezes on the other side to
carry us home. We are continuing to stack up quite well against our
competitors, and are hoping to beat them to the corner and turn for home in
front.

The daily fleet position and weather reports are eagerly awaited as everyone
waits to see how we are doing. There is yet a long way to go, so going into
another beautiful evening we bid you:

TTFN - Ta Ta For Now
IDEA


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