Race 9 - Day 4
Crew Diary - Race 9, Day 4
13 March

Hi all. Blog time again! Not tons has happened since my last missive but I'll do my best to entertain you.

First off, and most importantly, we saw whales!! Right up close this time. Actually we had to bare away to avoid them as they were directly on our bow, and then they ended up just off our starboard side. It was a little pod of ten to twelve pilot whales, according to our whales and dolphin identification book. It's been a while since 'Seahawks' have had a wildlife sighting so we really appreciated this one, and it definitely put smiles on our faces.

The new crew are settling in nicely, it helps that most of them aren't actually 'new' at all and have in fact already done some legs on board. We still have a good base of returning crew from Leg 5 and the Leg 6 joiners are helping us build and improve on that. It's nice to have some fresh faces and stories around too, as well as some new music! Although I have to say it's not all entirely good news, there are some new snoring habits to get used to as well... Lauren, apparently you can commiserate with my pain here!

Sailing wise, we've just rounded the northerly mark and are now on our way back 'home' to Subic. If I'm totally honest, I feel just a little flat this race – I think some of us are tiring of bobbing around the West Coast of the Philippines, and the uncertainty created by the virus is also hanging over our heads a bit. It will be good to get back and get some clarity about what our next steps will be.

Finally, happy belated birthday Mum, hopefully you saw Dave's message yesterday? Hope you had a lovely day, and I'll speak to you very soon!