Race 4 - Day 21
Crew Diary - Race 4, Day 21
08 December

Commotion in the Ocean

G’day shipmates mates, family, friends and other supporters,

Thank you for reading my blog today. It’s about life on board for the benefit of those not physically with us, but very much an important part of our journey together.

My first piece of news is that todays ‘master of the route’, Ryan, has declared that we made 283nm in the past 24 hours, smashing our ongoing target of 235nm per day and overall we are 113 ahead of our plan (or about 12 hours ahead on our target for the 21st… yippee!) More time for crew R&R on arrival fingers crossed. Everyday we are asked to guess before he does the calcs just after lunch – I guessed 280, some 255 some 260 so I was the closest … the prize is a morale one as we have loads of goodies on board still that we’re chomping through endlessly. We are so spoilt on this leg, but actually we need it. It's cold here, everything damp and nothing dries much at 44deg latitude it seems.

Tip one of the day! After being told by the Skipper of Visit Liverpool from the last race, I have discovered socks, hats etc wrung out and placed inside an open rubbish bin sack placed underneath the sleeping bag and on top of the mattress they do dry quite well while you’re asleep and reduce the cold shock of donning dripping clothes on watch start … such a good tip.

Tip two of the day! Get a couple pairs of genuine seal skin socks … nothing quite comes up to them IMO. Wear two pairs, keep inner ones dry and use tip one to keep as dry as possible.

Tip three of the day! No gloves are waterproof so either don’t bother or bring commercial marigolds to place between hand/inner glove and outer (wet) gloves.

Second piece of news is of a sad loss of the crew mascot . It happened because they weren’t tethered while at the wheel cage in the early hours last night. Crew members are tethered before shoulders come out of the companionway, but Pirate Minion wasn’t tethered and was lost at sea in heavy seas. Spinlock didn't have a size small enough for him it seems and he therefore didn't have his AIS beacon like the rest of the crew does. So sadly, no more of the mascot that Ryan has coveted and taken with him on all his journeys (and maybe used as a pillow on the odd flight here and there. Ryan’s first mission, time allowing in Fremantle, will be to find a Pirate Minion 2, not to replace Pirate Minion 1 but to add to the tradition. We all loved that guy even though he was only 12 inches tall.

We’re all loving the varied waterscape and various birds effortlessly gliding the wavelets in search of food – I keep asking myself why as it’s such an alien environment to the one I normally experience (and missing some other creature comforts too).

So for those of you waiting for us in Fremantle, to welcome us in or to join us at crew changeover, we have been keeping a close eye on our course and maximising our speed since the start and it seems to be paying off. The onward crew are as keen as mustard to make as early arrival as possible for some much needed R&R before Race 5 start … all hands to the pump!

Vamos!