Race 6 - Day 23
Crew Diary - The Fickle Breeze and prayer to Huey
14 February

So here we are having been in third place in this race for a couple of thousand miles suddenly being thrust into first place. After the breeze started to drop after the surfing conditions from VS Massey the sched came through that put us back in fifth position .The new joiners for this all looked rather depressed at the sudden change but I reassured that that in fact we were the 3rd closest yacht to VM Miller.

I also suggested that we could finish anywhere from 1st to 6th in this race. So we made a choice of course and one other yacht, WTC Logistics came with us and suddenly we appeared to have 20 plus miles back to third place. And when we finished my watch things all seemed cosey and the match race between ourselves and WTC Logistics could continue to the finish. But I wake to a calm sea and very little breeze and the yachts behind now showing up on AIS and charging down on us at more than twice our speed. So the sched still says we’re currently leading this race but if the breeze doesn’t come we are going to quickly slip behind.

Anyway the mood on the yacht is calm and I guess we are ready to accept our fate and enjoy the beer that is waiting . But we also know that the race is far from over and it is just frustrating that such a long race comes down to a lottery in the fickle breeze.

So I sit here writing my blog, listening to our extremely friendly crew now sitting round the galley, getting ready for the second round of the backgammon competition, who I am enjoying sailing with and spending 24/7 in this confined space.

And I pray to ‘Huey’ the Australian wind god for the breeze to turn back our way.