Race 6 - Day 6
Crew Diary - Voyage from Airlie Beach to Sanya
28 January

So good morning from on deck of Visit Sanya, China at 09.00 local time where we are steadily making progress northwards up the Salomon sea. It's another day in the tropics with the sun rapidly rising and starting to feel on your skin – luckily it's drying my clothes that were swamped last night by a squall that I can only describe as dropping biblical amounts of rain in a matter of minutes – another free shower :) As per yesterday's blog, we are still motoring and have about another five hours to go before we reach our maximum motoring time in the Doldrums and at that point we are back in the hands of the wind gods.

On that very point, I have learnt so much about sailing in the last week that I really did not expect and the biggest point would be patience. So let me break this into two points: First, in light winds, that we have had pretty much since Airlie, patience is our master. Light wind sailing skills are all about the tiniest movements on the helm and the contrast in speeds between a novice and an old sea dog like Karl or Rick is incredible – they can sail along at pretty much the wind speed by the finest of movements whereas amateurs like me instantly try to hard and get half the speed – it’s so fantastic to be having this masterclass. Of course the gains that can be made in light winds are noticeable and relevant between the boats. Therein comes the second part of patience which is where other boats or sections of the fleet get a nice juicy squall to rapidly propel them forwards or just find a nice stream of wind that has them deftly slip by you whilst you wring your hands in pure frustration – I guess it should even out!

To this point I would really like to note how Seumas and Jorge take all of this in their stride and are continually upbeat about what weather cards are dealt for us. Their continued optimism and ability to assimilate the conditions and the constant changes that are put in front of us give me great confidence. So onwards to Sanya we strive and very much looking forwards to the trade winds past the equator. Have a great day and be patient.