Race 7 - Day 20
Crew Diary - Race 7, Day 20: Whitsundays to Sanya
19 February

It's Day 20 aboard Dare To Lead and after a hard, dark night where sailing under spinnaker was tricky, we are now getting rewarded with another sunny but thankfully cooler day. With the lighter winds we have hoisted our Code 1 which was a good call especially as upon packing below a few thumb sized holes had appeared, potentially due to a few close wraps that we've had these past few days.

Not much has changed recently, we've had the excitement of a few gybes as we went round the top of the Philippines but mainly this leg has consisted of downwind sailing on a port tack. Our leggers have gotten away with an extremely light introduction into ocean racing, here's hoping that they might find a bit more 'excitement' when we break north for Qingdao! Can't have them returning home thinking it's all sunshine and rainbows, they need to experience the full washing machine effect.

We've not seen much wildlife on this leg but the other day saw us getting into a spot of bother with a couple of birds. Who can blame them really with little else around they were only taking full advantage of a new toy that they had come across. After trying to race us from above and show off their swooping and diving skills by flying circles around us they then decided that they would have a competition between the two of them to see who could land onboard first. Unfortunately, they had chosen our windex as their landing spot. Initially this provided much entertainment to watch them try and land on top of our mast until we actually realised their intended landing spot which then saw us fail in our attempts at putting them off their new game. Jenny tried her best squawking but they would not be deterred. One was lucky enough to land but thankfully had managed to swoop in from the front and land just beside our windex, a few tense moments then followed as we watched his beating wings repeatedly hit the windex while his friend tried to land on also. As the sun was setting they both flew off, one proudly squawking victory in their new game.

By the time you read this we will have entered Stealth Mode! The war paint is on and we are ready to be sneaky. With the finish so close, it's still all to play for we have Sanya Serenity Coast and Unicef to battle for a podium. We can't make it too easy for them and under the stealth veil we will look to build a few miles between us hopefully putting us in better position. Unfortunately, for you guys at home we are interrupting your daily race tracker routines but this means you might just get a little work done in the next 24 hours? Just think of it as a little favour from us to you. Before you know it we w,ill be back online and your routines can continue.

Excitement is building onboard as we draw ever closer to the finish line, the usual routine of guessing our arrival time and talk of what we shall do/look forward to most has already begun. Sanya looks to be a busy but exciting stopover but before that you have our Yorkshire correspondent Mick with you tomorrow.

Brought to you by Charlie