Hi,

‘ello folks. I’ll be honest, I'm pretty tired. It was a long night of short shifts, so trying to play catch up on sleep.

So we went into Stealth Mode only for us to bump into Qingdao 12 hours later. But had a little chat with Chris and Rhiannon and we are now half a mile behind them and gaining. I explained that I didn't want to get into a luffing battle in the middle of an ocean and they agreed which was nice. In the morning we got our Code 2 Spinnaker back up and I counted 21 small repairs! We have only been sailing for twelve days so that's almost two repairs a day and its roughly a 300-ish day race so I’m guessing it’s going to be a kind of philosophers axe/triggers broom scenario of a sail, but in better news the Code 1 and 3 Spinnakers are undamaged.

It's all getting very tense with five to six boats all in the running for the Scoring Gate and I can see and feel the competitiveness of the crew coming out, which is nice to see. With every evolution they are trying to better it but sometimes I advise just to keep it simple and stop trying to reinvent the wheel...

While I have the time, I’d like to thank our Victualling team. We had fillet steak last night (or was it the night before?) and today we had bangers and mash! So top job to them and well done to the Mothers for smashing out the meals.

I’m noticing the moonrise is getting later and lesser; I only say this because as we enter the Tropic of Cancer, thunder and lightning storms (and squalls) will become more prevalent. So it's nice to have a full moon to catch these moments in advance without having to have someone parked in front of a screen (radar). Right, I must get back on deck, I’m getting nervous about getting another kite wrap.

Ah, and just a quick one; we get emails from the office daily regarding various bits and bobs and a couple of times they have said, “Hope it's getting warmer now, I’m sure you must be in shorts and t-shirt for night watch”. Shorts yes, but I'm still wearing my coat on deck at night and even a beanie for the graveyard shift! (I'm not complaining but just want them to know).

Josh

P.S. I just went on deck and Mark is in shorts and t-shirt (0234)