Race 6 - Day 6
Crew Diary - Race 6, Day 6
28 January

Hello readers. In this blog, I would like to share with you a personal reflection as well as a few of the funnier moments on board the good ship Visit Sanya, China. I hope you enjoy...cheers Ed

Going on an adventure – after the disappointment of missing Leg 1 in September for health reasons and the four months of recovery that followed, on January 6 I was thrilled to receive the green light to join the crew in Airlie Beach and pick up where we left off after deliver to St. Katharine Docks in late August. It was like returning home when I saw the smiling but tired faces arrive that morning in Airlie beach. After their back to back challenges in Legs 3 and 4 for little or no points, you would have expected their spirits to be low, but it was the opposite they were beaming with pride in their achievement and look forward to a few days downtime. Also joining this adventure were the wide-eyed faces of old and new leggers, who after celebratory drinks with the team were willingly absorbed back into the bosom of the Visit Sanya, China team once again. It was at this get together that it struck me that we have a fantastic team ethos and that our best adventures and results are still ahead of us…

The inquisition – starring John Mackadder Martin and Dickie Baldric Clements.

It all began on Thursday evening when an item of significant importance (to some) went missing from its charging station. What followed can only be described as a cross between an episode of Blackadder and Dad’s Army. It started with a deep clean style search for the missing fan and having backtracked his steps on numerous occasions with our resident joker, aka John MackAdder our victim’s face grew forlorn as the dread of sleeping in 35-degree heat for 22 days dawned on him. With the resolve of Taggart and the cunning of Blackadder, our victim set off on an inquisition, guided (some say erroneously) by his sidekick Dickie Baldric. During the 4am - 8 am watch the duo hatched a cunning plan to find the culprit, and it was put into place with immediate effect. There followed a series of interrogations of suspects by our hero Mackadder which did not yield one single result. Then a shortlist of around two suspects was drawn up (including the Skip), the interrogations were fierce, friendships lost, reputations dashed but funnily enough yielded no result.

With Precious not recovered, the cunning duo decided that the only way to recover Precious was to hold a Spanish style inquisition as well as install a secret camera at the charging station to monitor suspicious activity. This is where Baldric came into his own, as minds were set to inventing all manner of torturous devices from coffee grinders for stretching limbs and other organs, to thumbscrews, to lashing suspects to the spinnaker tack then blowing it, to using the handy billy in cruel and unusual ways.

Then as plans for the final solution were nearing completion a crew member (who is used to losing things) suggested to Mackadder that he look in the cupboard next to where his precious was last seen. As luck would have it precious was found 20cm away from where it was placed the previous day and as Mackadded danced with joy, Baldric was shattered with disappointment, just then I swear I heard a collective murmur from the crew say.. “next time have a girl look Mackadder”... end.