Hello Team,

Welcome to International Women's Day, hope you're having a great ‘Equalities Thursday’? Hope your week is going well. We are still beating our way towards the start of the Elliott Brown Ocean Sprint, and occasionally see other Clipper 70s briefly flash up on AIS as the tacking tactics play out.

The team are working hard as we have slipped a few positions in the six hourly schedules as criss-crossing of the beats play out. We are currently heading almost east, with the Yankee 2, stay and reef 1 in the main, closed hauled, achieving 9 knots.

We have had some wildlife to break up the sailing focus. Yesterday we saw four whales, we think they were pilot whales. It was a surprise and unexpected delight to see whales in the South China Sea. This morning a swallow swooped and dived around the boat, joining in our reefing evolution.

I am currently reading “Shackleton – By Endurance We Conquer” by Michael Smith. Shackleton has always been a hero of mine. I find it fascinating, the logistics involved in those early expeditions to Antarctic and I have even had a look at the TimeZero, studying where Shackleton stayed for his first Antarctic winter, McMurdo Sound, while serving as a Third Officer on Scott's 1902 Antarctic expedition.

I try and imagine what it would have been like with that poor equipment and food, relying on seal fat to supplement their calorie intake. It is difficult to comprehend, now I sit here and by the magic of Xgate I can send an email, so wherever you are in the world you can read this blog. Our Henri Lloyd wet breathable weather gear made from Gore-tex is something that they could have only dreamed about while wrapped in a blanket inside a canvas tent eating what we would consider dog biscuits. Times change.

The other standout noticeable difference to now and the days of Shackleton, who was famous for looking after his men, is exactly that, his “men”. There were no females on those expeditions. It seems hard to contemplate these days that females wouldn't have been taking part. This year there are 29% females on the GREAT Britain team and currently eight females are on the boat as crew, giving us a current percentage of 47% females, of which two, Pip and Alanna, are our Watch Leaders, and our Medical Assistant is Dr Tessa Hicks.

One of the crew on the last leg was an Olympian Gold medallist, Hannah McLeod. These are also facts that Emily Dorman, Shackleton's future wife, would have dreamt of while waiting in the UK for expeditions to conclude. I would wager a glass of something that the original Clipper Race in 1996 didn't have such a high percentage of females taking part.

From a personal point of view, I am delighted that Cressida Dick, whom I had the privilege to serve with while in the police, was the first woman appointed to be the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, an appointment long kept for the male domain. Shackleton and Scott had their physically hard-fought dreams shattered which is disappointing; however females are shattering glass ceilings, which they had to fight equally hard for and long term is more important for the humankind. So to use the words of another influence in my life, Bob Dylan, “times they are a changing”, but not everywhere and with an equality that is still disproportional.

Tricky Thursday, so no stats today, just your grey matter exercise. “What do you break by saying its name?” Oh and by the way, did you know? Dolly Parton, once lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest. “I got beaten by some Drag Queen” said Dolly.

Standing by the channel – out.

Dave