Race 13 - Day 4
Crew Diary - Race 13 Day 4
23 June

Hello peeps from the good ship Sanya,

There are no fish in this ocean, or rather that’s the impression I’m getting. Fish bring other species – dolphins, ocean birds and others. I sit on deck day after day scanning the immediate waters around us for signs of life. In the Pacific we saw dolphins most days, we saw turtles and plenty of ocean birds such as boobys, but since reaching the Caribbean sea and now the Atlantic ocean there have been very few sightings. We did have 3 enormous dolphins leap out of the water ahead of us yesterday but certainly didn’t stay to play.

We see the occasional tropic bird and shearwaters but nothing like the quantity and diversity that we saw in the Pacific Ocean. Could it be that we just aren’t seeing it or is it that it just isn’t here?

Life on board has slipped into the usual pattern of eat, sleep, sail, repeat and so feeling sleepy at ten to eight in the morning and looking forward to 5 hours of sleep is quite usual.

We are thinking about our New York stopover and all the things we have to do to get our boat ready for the ‘Homecoming’ crossing back to the UK. We are going to be busy with a corporate sailing day and sail repair. Our Yankee 1 is still poorly after an over enthusiastic grind during the first night.

Now it looks like we have spinnaker repairs as well. Not sure there’s going to be too much sight seeing for the sail repair team and all the willing volunteers! Hey-ho that’s sailing.

Best Wishes to all that follow Visit Sanya, China.