Good Day from a cold Dare To Lead,
Well Retief and I are still trying to warm up after our Hawaiian dance show!
If you haven’t seen it yet a few days ago Retief posted a video that he will do a Hula dance for the Hawaiian low that is passing over the fleet if a target of £1000 was raised in time for our UNICEF fundraising page. Less than 24 hours later the target was reached so I posted a video that I would join Retief if a new target of £2000 was raised. We got confirmation this morning that we have reached the £2000 mark, so I joined Retief in a very cold and entertaining Hawaiian show with some props from the Hawaiian party in Newcastle, Australia, that we took home with us. Cockpit temperature was 11.4C with lower wild chill factors on the bow and a similar sea temperature spraying us. Video will be posted shortly, stay tuned!
Otherwise besides the entertaining afternoon we are all doing well onboard. It’s gotten very cold now so all layers are on and you can’t help permanently thinking about how good it will be to jump in your warm sleeping bag straight after watch.
The last two days or so with just the front sails and main sail, and not flying any spinnakers, has given myself and Charlie some time to relax more downstairs doing other jobs and for Charlie the time to get rid of a cold. It gives the Watch Leader and crew the responsibility of sailing the boat and making decisions by themselves. They have done an impressive job and make us feel quite proud of the team.
When asked what day you would relive in the race once we passed the International Date Line, one crew who is a round the worlder made an interesting comment saying that it wasn’t one particular day but he has really enjoyed the sailing the most the last two races, as it feels like more of a passion now that it has grown on him rather than just a big challenge that most set out to achieve in the beginning. He also said that he would like to complete sailing qualifications and get his own boat after the race which really shows what this race offers to different people. This is from someone that had never sailed before starting the Clipper Racetwo years ago.
Time for a hot drink to warm up, have a good day everyone!
Bye for now, Ryan, Charlie and Crew