13:00 29 December: We have gybed onto the gybe which will take us past Tasmania, which we leave to port. We are just 50 miles south of Tasmania and sailing downwind in 30-40 knots in good sized waves - fulfilling (one of) my Christmas wishes. Top speed so far today is 21 knots. Being on this gybe is very exciting for me because it means the next nearest piece of land on our starboard side is New Zealand, which is home. After sailing thousands of miles in the world’s southern oceans, it now feels like my family is just over the horizon. I am also on the home strait of my Clipper Race adventure which will be complete in Airlie Beach. A short flight back to NZ and I will have completed my Southern Hemisphere circumnavigation which began when I flew to Uruguay on 13 October.
Leg 4 has been a fun leg and both a lot shorter and a lot less brutal than the leg from Cape Town to Fremantle. We went down to 45 degrees south but it remained warm and the weather was generally fine. Some good tactical decisions resulted in us spending a lot less time in the various wind holes, that developed in the Great Australian Bight, than we had expected following the race briefing in Freo and it has taken just ten days to get across Australia. We still have to navigate a wind hole developing around the Bass Strait (who would have thought for one of the most notoriously windy stretches of water in the world - but seemingly standard for this Clipper Race) so we are hoping also to not get stuck there. This leg included Christmas Day. While isolation from family was really hard we did have a fun day on board complete with a three-course lunch, including ham and Christmas cake, crackers, terrible jokes and Christmas hats, and a secret Santa. It finished with a poor (despite several days’ practice) but enthusiastic rendition, over VHF, of The Pogues’ Fairytale in New York, by our crew to Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam. Unfortunately for them, they were the only boat within VHF range but apparently, and somewhat surprisingly, they were really pleased to hear from us. It was the only Christmas song they had heard as no one on board had taken a Christmas playlist! Either side of Christmas, and less fun, were our two kite wraps. A combined five hours on the foredeck provided the ying to the yang of the Christmas lunch. Our own Christmas miracle was the relatively limited damage suffered to the two kites involved and both are now fit for further use. It is time for me to get some sleep on the off watch as the boat continues to sail up (the somewhat distant) West coast of NZ. Cheers. Ed