Race 2 - Day 5
Skipper Report
20 September

Another good day’s sailing. The islands are north of us. It’s a really good feeling as we have been worried that the high pressure ridging in was going to slow us before we could get south. Well, one less worry and we can now look forward to the Cape Verde Islands, and toward the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) gates.

Zhuhai and GotoBermuda are still in their own little battle with us, crossing a number of times today within a couple of miles of each other. Neither giving an inch and neither taking an inch. Great racing. I must admit when you are racing all alone, your concentration is never as heightened as when you can see your competition. It's all just numbers on a screen. So, as I am sure Nick would agree, boats go faster when they are close racing together. Good for us and our crews as they get more used to the racing excitement and commitment.

Talking of crew, our three watch system has now been well tried with much approval from the crew. Our system, named after three beaches on the Island of Bermuda: Horseshoe Cove, Shelly Bay and Tobacco Bay, works with an on watch, an off watch and a standby watch. The standby watch is split in two. So half are asleep with the other half doing below deck duties and if needed, can go on deck if called upon. This means that every day each crew member gets an eight hour sleep, and 24 hours a day we have a standby on duty, so bread can be baked at 3am for 6am breakfast, cleaning can be done 24/7 etc. But most importantly it means that each crew gets the sunrise or sunset, midday and midnight, giving them the holistic picture. And anyway, very fresh bread does make one’s morning.

So with a whole new chapter ahead, "the North Atlantic", I will be off to start writing it.

Chat tomorrow,

Wavy