Race 7 - Day 5
Crew Diary - ​Onwards and upwards
28 February

Onwards and upwards

Heading up the east side of the islands around Taiwan we have seen some interesting landforms. It all looks very high with shear sides but very green and lush. We have seen a bit more bird life and today were lucky enough to see two sperm whales – they circled around getting close enough to get a good look at them spouting and breaching in the waves. Fantastic.

It is all very much bouncier out here now and several crew are feeling less than 100%. It’s difficult to stay properly hydrated when your drink bottle is always at the wrong end of the boat and it’s such an effort to move and get at it. Also lots more bruises from the gymnastics required to do everything, especially below decks. So far nobody has flown out of the head into the vegetable store but it’s probably only a matter of time!

Sleeping is difficult, it’s still hot so daytime sleeping is only for the heavy sleepers it seems and the bunks are at a 45 degree angle to keep people from falling out (Barry didn’t quite get it right last night and almost crashed through the floor!). The downside of the angled bunks is that you get squashed between the bunk and the wall and the position you end up in when you finally launch yourself into the bunk, (particularly tricky getting onto the top bunks which are often leaning over you) is the position you have to stay in for the duration of your rest time. Turning isn’t an option!

We seem to be making progress towards the Dell Latitude Rugged Ocean Sprint start, racing eight of the other boats since all but two yachts chose to race north, generally more upwind than the southerly option. We’ll see how that pans out over the next couple of days.

Well, my bread needs to be kneaded again and baked for breakfast. It will feel strange when I next bake bread at home, not to be doing it while being thrown all over the place, at 4 a.m. under a red light!

Tammy Hirst