Hello Team,
How are you doing, I haven’t been ignoring you, honestly. Are you looking forward to the Finish Line, I can assure you, we are at this end. It's been a long race, with the weather falling favourable for us only during the Ocean Sprint, but whether it was favourable enough to pick up a point, time will tell.
The mood on board is upbeat, the Code 1 is flying, the boat is flat, the sun has been sighted, hatches are open, and things are slowly drying out, with music is playing on deck. Oh, and of course the end is in sight, we are just awaiting the wind hole that will delay our arrival, because that’s compulsory apparently.
For those of you with friends, family or loved ones on board, you should be incredibly proud of them. This is a leg where there is no place to hide on board, everyone needs to pull together, and they have. They have achieved something remarkable, and they should be shown respect for doing that. My thoughts will be with you as they regale their tales of hardship, just remember with time and wine, the waves will get bigger, and the winds will get stronger – just at that point remind them there were no wind instruments for the whole trip. (That way it will look as if you have listened the first time you heard it and reduce the amount of time you have relive it, again.)
This leg has been hard for me. Out of the four times I have crossed this ocean, I have found this the hardest crossing. It's not been because the weather has been the most challenging in terms of severity, it hasn’t. The section between Japan and ‘Highway 45’ was grey, leaden, overcast, cold and generally mood sapping. The wind direction gave no easy options tactically, just the least bad of many poor ones. I then took the worst possible one. It's not been the duration, last race we took 37 days, that’s a long time in this vast relentless ocean.
Happy Birthday Nick, for tomorrow, looking forward to catching up in the Autumn.
Enjoy your stopover break
David (UTC -10)