So our blogs keep getting written later and later everyday
and this is because it’s so hot at 12 in the afternoon everybody just
wants to get their head down out of the sun rather than sweating at the chart
table! Or alternatively we want to enjoy the sun outside and we don’t
want to miss out on it!
Today we again completed another peel (we are getting pretty
damn good at them now) and a gybe. Our gybe took us an hour to set up because we
only had one sheet on the spinnaker with no take down line and only one guy on,
as well as having a preventer rigged which was the other guy. Writing this
makes It sound as though we had no idea how to hoist a spinnaker as we had lots
of bits of string missing but I can assure you it was all for good reason! It’s
odd that we get to plan 12 hours in advanced when to gybe rather than just doing
it willy nilly. In the last couple of hours the wind has dropped again and our
VMG is 6.1knts. The skies are cloudy and we keep having to dodge the rain
squalls – so far we have been extremely lucky with no rain but I feel as
though perhaps we will pay for this!
Rich, our qualified nurse on board had to open his surgery
today to lance the boil like growths on Josh’s knee (Don’t worry
Michelle & Andy, he is fine!) We thought at first they were in-growing
hairs on his knees which had swelled up but now we think they are salt sores.
He is all patched up now with a big bandage. The surgery will open from 9-10am
tomorrow for his check up.
We are gradually getting closer to that 1000miles mark!
Horray! We will be having a big celebration when we get to 3 digits (probably
with a bottle of coca cola and some iced tea – we know how to live) We
expect to get to that early Saturday morning. Ingrid has been carefully writing
out all the other positions of the other boats in our class and it seems that
we are closing in on them rapidly! We nearly jumped up a place yesterday as we
caught up with Challenger 3 but they retired so still in same position on
board. We are in a class full of much faster bigger boats so we are pleased
with our progress.
Hope you’re all OK back at home and not missing us too
much!!