Race 3 - Day 14
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 14: Cape Town to Fremantle
14 November

After a rocky start, a fight with currents, an epic battle for 8 days with everything the Southern Ocean had to throw at us (beating against 40knots of wind, waves as big as houses) the last few days have been a blessing! The wind eased, sea calmed and now today we have the wind on the beam blowing us along at a steady 10 plus knots with our code 3 kite, and...going in the right direction.

This morning at approx 3am GMT, I was standing next to my cockney builder mate Dave, watching him improving his helming skills, when 2 humpback whales appeared 10 feet on our starboard side, we bore away quickly to avoid a collision, over the next 10 mins the two whales, a mother and baby swam on the surface 30 metres from us parallel, a very spectacular sight, WOW!

The race update, the team is continually improving and gaining in performance, everyone wants to do well, 100% always given. Unfortunate a lot of long distance racing is down to the wind gods, we have a good forecast ahead our fingers crossed but our elbows are greased!

On a personal view, I come from a very competitive sailing background, I race a j24, for me this race was about how long I could sustain in racing mode for. I'm happy to say that, probably due to the watch system, this is easily maintained. About 8 days in my body was feeling tired, then I did galley duty for the day, followed by a long rest, I woke up fresh and was ready to rock and roll again. I miss my family but their emails of support have support have been awesome.

I'm doing this to hope to inspire my children, to test my character and become a better sailor. Over and out,

Matthew Conyers, team Nasdaq.