Race 10 - Day 11
Crew Diary - Race 10 Day 8
15 April

Yesterday (April 4th) we had not one but two birthdays on board Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam, my 40th, and Eric's 40th plus a few more years.

My day started at 03:15 with a wake-up fire alarm that signalled the bacon, and waffles were cooking, and it was time to get up for my first deck watch of the day. Breakfast was excellent, there was even maple (flavoured) syrup!

Up on deck it was wet, windy, heeling over a lot, wet, and did I mention wet, but it was oddly not too cold. Everyone who was up sang Happy Birthday and then they headed down to breakfast and bed. The helming looked pretty difficult, so I didn’t even contemplate trying to do a stint, I just sat up on one of the winches, drank a cup of tea, and watched the Pacific Ocean splash by while Eric, Ross, Adrian, and Cam helmed us to greater and greater speeds. I think the maximum speed they achieved was 27.5 knots!

Back down after watch it was time for lunch, gifts, and then a long sleep. I didn’t get a birthday cake today, but it isn’t easy getting the cake level at 45 degrees heel, so Jaci has promised to bake me a carrot cake (my favourite) when we get to Seattle, and I am looking forward to that.

We have been skelping along this last couple of days and we have put a decent distance between ourselves and the rest of the fleet. Hopefully, we can maintain this, and maybe get another podium finish.

Thank you to everyone who has made my 40th birthday one I will not easily forget.

One of the sailing milestones I am looking forward to achieving soon is crossing the International Date Line and getting to redo a whole day again. One of the questions the media team asked us to consider before we left Qingdao was ‘What day of the race would we like to repeat?’ For me, I would love to have a repeat of the day we came flying around Rottnest Island into Fremantle to see my Aunty Lindy (my mum's identical twin) and all my Aussie cousins waving Shetland flags, but this time it would be my mum waving us into Bell Harbor Marina in Seattle. The race finish is still a couple of weeks away and a lot can change between now and then, but Bob and Cam have us on a good course and we are keeping ahead of everyone else as we head towards the scoring gate, so hopefully we can make this birthday wish come true.