Ello folks,
I don’t often write about my crew but today just before this leg finishes I’d like to highlight one crew in particular, he goes by the name 'Harpo' you may know him as Jim Day. The gentleman in question has come on leaps and bounds since race start where he smoked the Yankee Halyard at Race Start, right in front of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston! I don’t think he will mind me mentioning this due to the words that followed. So Harpo, before sailing with me and completing his Level 4 training, volunteered to be the yachts victualler, which in itself is a thankless task - and he even managed to acquire us a cow!
Then we come to him sailing / living on the boat, if I ask for a hand his is always the first raised! I don’t think he will mind me saying this, but he is not the best helmsman on board, but he is improving leg by leg. For what he cant helm, he by far makes up for in so many ways - his attitude to sea sickness is to 'vom and carry on' and he has mastered all the wheel of life roles and never ever grumbles about a thing.
So if you are fortunate to be joining our boat on this race my advice would be to find Jim, follow Jim, then copy Jim! Luckily he has big arms aka wings for you to be taken under, so from the crew to Harpo - thank you you absolute legend!
Josh, Hugo and the crew of Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam
A note from the AQP
About wildlife.
I'm a bit jealous when I read all the other skippers blogs, it's all about wildlife, birds, dolphins, whales - Ian even saw a shark last leg!
On our side, nothing. We did see a few birds; albatross, petrels, two lonely hourglass dolphins... and that’s it. I have two explanations about this: One is that since we saw a family of whales before arriving in Punta (three whales, including a young one... or it was it a giant jellyfish? Witnesses differ on that last one) - maybe marine animals are now trying to avoid us, just to be safe. My other explanation is that in our case, the wildlife is actually on the boat, and not around it. I let you draw your own conclusions!