Race 6 - Day 4
Crew Diary - Race 6, Day 4
28 January

Another scorcher in the Coral Sea – hot and sweaty with little breeze.

We’re making our way steadily towards the Doldrums Corridor surrounded by nothing but almost purple-coloured seas. We see an occasional bird and wonder where they go and do they ever rest?

We’ve had to dodge a few flying fish landing on deck. They really do fly, across long swathes of water and sometimes completely over the boat!

Last night wasn’t as starry as the previous night, owing to a fair bit of cloud cover but that was some welcome relief from the heat of the day and I still counted four shooting stars, eight fewer than the previous night.

Our Chinese ambassadors and photographer cooked about 1000 of their traditional mushroom dumplings for Chinese New Year’s Eve last night, and there were more mushrooms for lunch in the sun today.

Currently flying the massive 330 square metre Code 1 Spinnaker – absolutely huge but plenty of space for it out here with these big skies! Nothing else to see in any direction for days and quite mind-boggling. Hopefully, the wind will pick up and we can make some good times in the next few days.

All the newbies on board are getting used to the watch system and honing their helming and sailing skills. So much to learn but great teachers!