Race 8 - Day 10
Crew Diary - Race 8 Day 10: Sanya to Qingdao
14 March

Have you ever played sumo fights with these inflatable costumes, where you throw yourself around and end up generally like an turtle on its back, needing the help of others to get back on your feet? Well, it's basically us in our multi-layered gear now that the cold is really upon us. Laura and I are ending up in laughing fits when we try to put on our seven layers for the night watch, and we do require external assistance to take them off (Tom is probably traumatised by now of having to undress us energetically so many times).

Tonight, we had the thickest fog I ever saw in my life, with the boat projecting shadow not on the sail but on the actual fog. We did a spinnaker peel in that atmosphere where everything that could go wrong actually went wrong: the halyard was stuck at the top of the mast, so we sent Harry up, then the yankee shackle was stuck and took 10 minutes to open it, then the tack line of the old spinnaker was wrapped around the pushpit and wouldn't release with the new spinnaker briefly being submerged under the boat, then the new recovery line ended up in the water, trawling behind our boat. All of this punctuated by fog horns from invisible boats around us, in a very Pirates of Caribbean-y ambience. Without Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom unfortunately.

We are almost there, after a tough race, and the leggers will leave us soon. I will really miss this bunch of guys, I enjoyed facing the highs and lows of life on deck and down below with them. I laughed so hard with them that I actually spat back my drink (when Cam was casually drying what he calls his Ben and Jerrys with kitchen roll in the galley - Ben and Jerrys lost a customer in me), and they also cheered me up in the more difficult moments (like when we run out of Snickers AND crunchy peanut butter). We are also losing Mik the Mate, who has been a priceless asset to the boat: patient teacher when needed, trimming and helming coach, safe ear to swear around (the others have limited my swearing to 3 words per day and are monitoring them), keen eye on the nav station for us when we were too busy on deck and a mood cheerer. Oh and also a great medic, as my scar testifies.

To come back on one of his claims in the skipper report, and for the benefit of Alison, I can indeed cook now, but as he said, for 14 hungry sailors, who would eat anything that resembles carbs and meat, however overcooked and underspiced they could be. So friends and family, don't sign me up for Masterchef and really don't expect me to bring any food to your parties, I will stick to what I know: Wine!