Race 4 - Day 7
Crew Diary - Race 4, Day 7
24 November

You’re Gorgeous!

I never thought I would say that about the notorious southern ocean … but Saturday night was amazing. We are at 44 degrees south and with limited cloud cover, the night sky was full of stars including, of course, the Southern Cross. At around 3 am a dull orange glow began to fill the eastern skyline dead ahead and the light was incredible - the closest thing yet to the amazing daylight I have experienced in northern Finland. The orange glow gradually filled the entire horizon and slowly a beautiful sunlight day dawned. The calm sea was a dull grey blue, the wind was steady at 20 knots and the boat and crew basked in the weak but welcome sun. Not what we had expected from the southern ocean, and I am sure it has some surprises in store for us but on this day it was gorgeous.

We have again been forced further south than we would like by a lack of available spinnakers (our Code 2 has been in the James Apedia and Nick Norfolk repair shop for three solid days and is only now emerging - an incredible effort from them both). But yesterday the lighter winds allowed us to launch the Code 1 and this is currently up and flying well. This also allowed us to gybe north for the scoring gate where third place remains our target.

Nick Hussey