Working below deck, my ears pricked up at hearing my name being mentioned in a conversation above. Curious, I have a little listen... the duty watch are discussing who they would eat first in an emergency. I'm glad my name is in the mix, although hopefully for my lean tenderness rather than a desperate desire to dispose of me first.
Josh's favourite saying is trim, trim, trim, helm, helm, helm. We all understand why we haven't changed our sail plan for over 24 hours (Code 1 Spinnaker in case you were wondering), and you can be sure this will be the same for many of the other teams. A 0.5 knot gain here and there, meaning keeping our sails trimmed and helming a smooth straight course, Over 5,200 nautical miles this will be the difference between us being a contender or lagging behind.
But it is not all trim, trim, trim, helm, helm, helm. Unlike Race 1, the steadiness of the sailing leaves plenty of time to discuss the edibility of one’s teammates, and Muriel's inability to abide by the rules of these little games we devise (apparently a bus route in Belgium is a country beginning with W).
Obviously the most discussed topic is Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam’s team position in the race, in particular why we seem to be vying with Visit Sanya, China for the lead, but our official Clipper Race position is sixth and Visit Sanya, China is eighth.
P.s. late amendment, as of the 6pm UTC position report Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam are now officially in first place! Woohoo, my foot is safe.
To Media: please insert the 2 photos already sent at the end of this blog. Thank you and have a nice day !